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What is God? 



BY 



SOLOMON COHEN 

I) 



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39 EAST BROADWAY 
NEW YORK 






Copyright, 1917, by 
SOLOMON COHEN 



JUN -8 1917 


©C1,A487356 


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SOLOMON COHEN 



PREFACE 

In the year 1910 I published my first book en- 
titled "Homespun Philosophy" which to my great 
surprise and delight was well received by many 
thoughtful men. I think it best to reproduce here 
the Preface of that book with some additional ex- 
planatory remarks. 

With mingled feelings of humility and pride 
I present this little book to the reading public. I 
am well aware of its many faults and imperfec- 
tions, and am fully conscious of my lack of a 
higher education and philosophic training, in con- 
sequence of which I am unable to express my 
thoughts with clearness and precision. 

Yet I take a pardonable pride in the fact that 
despite the drawbacks of a meagre education, and 
notwithstanding the strenuous work I had to do 
in building up a large business, I have not allowed 
my mind to become absorbed entirely in business 
matters, but have devoted some of my time to think 
and meditate upon the higher problems of life. 

I never went much to school, and have but little 
taste for books and study. By way of compensa- 
tion Nature has given me a retentive memory, so 
that anything I happen to read or hear, sticks in 

3 



4 PREFACE 

my mind. I am also possessed of a considerable 
power of imagination, which manifested itself in 
early life. In my boyhood fancies, I would often 
ride on the wind and fly through the air without 
the aid of any airship. 

When I passed the age of youth and entered 
middle life, I felt my mental powers increasing, 
and thoughts on different philosophical subjects 
flowed, so to speak, into my mind. 

I cannot explain how I came by my thoughts, 
and probably there will be not a few who will be 
astonished at the almost miraculous fact of a plain, 
and uneducated man, like myself, being inspired 
to thoughts relating to the deepest and highest 
problems of human existence. 

As the title "Homespun Philosophy^' indicates, 
my thoughts are not the products of high culture 
and great learning, but are rather rough and un- 
polished, being born amidst the din and noise of a 
busy manufacturing place. But while scholarly 
and scientific men arrive at their conclusions by 
an elaborate process of reasoning, it was given to 
me to discern the truth by intuition, and to have 
my views on some points, as for instance the ex- 
istence of a Divine Providence, confirmed by the 
actual experience in my own life. 



PREFACE 5 

I venture to cherish the hope that the reader 
may find in these pages some thoughts at least 
NYhich will prove to be a help and a stimulus to 
high thinking and noble living. 

This was my Preface to my "Homespun Philos- 
ophy." 

I desire now to make a statement which was 
inadvertently omitted in the above Preface. It is 
this: Both my "Homespun Philosophy'' and this 
present book were written by me in Yiddish, the 
language most familiar to me. The translation 
into the English was made by a friend of mine to 
whom I am glad to express hereby my sincerest 
thanks for his painstaking labors. 

As for the view of God presented in the follow- 
ing pages, to some people it will doubtless appear 
as being too radical and too far in advance of the 
current thought, while others again will think that 
I am still under the influence of the old and de- 
crepit religious views. All I can say is that I 
have presented my views without fear or favor. 
T am a seeker after truth and if anybody will 
point out wherein I have erred I shall glady listen 
to him. It is diflflcult to speak on the subject of 
God, so abounding in awe and mystery, with posi- 
tive assurance. But it is possible for every think- 



6 PREFACE 

ing man to get a glimpse at least of the divine 
light and truth. It is my sincerest hope that this 
book may be of some help, however little, to dis- 
sipate the clouds of fanaticism and superstition 
and to vindicate the right of man to independence 
and freedom of thought. 

The Author 
New York, May 1917 



CONTENTS 

Chap. Page 

I. Belief in God is Necessary 9 

n. The Eternal God 18 

III. God and the World 25 

IV. The Relation between God and Man 31 

V. Who Governs the World ? 39 

VI. God and Nature 48 

VII. God and the Devil 58 

VIII. God's and Man's Wisdom 65 

IX. God and Religion 74 

X. God and the Soul 88 



'The people that walk in darkness 
Have seen a great light'' 

Isaiah, Chapter IX. 



Chap. I. 

BELIEF IN GOD IS NECESSARY. 

The only reason why I believe in God is — rea- 
son. I have no other reasons. Religious senti- 
ments, social environments, or mercenary motives, 
had absolutely no influence whatever in shaping 
my belief in God. Many years of free and unhamp- 
ered thinking on the subject of God have ripened 
in me the conviction that belief in God is necessary 
to the thinking mind. I have searched after God 
and found him, not in the Bible, not in the starry 
heavens, and in the ever-rolling seas, not in the 
green fields and forests, but within myself. 

No man has ever seen God and yet w^e know 
that God is, though we know not what God is. We 
know that the North Pole exists although Peary is 
the only man who has ever seen it. We know that 
electricity exists although even Edison has never 
seen it. We know that God is, although no living 
man has ever seen him. I say no living man, for 

9 



10 WHAT IS GOD? 

there are plenty of dead men who have claimed or 
for whom it is claimed that they have seen God 
face to face and have spoken to him as one man 
speaks to another. Our knowledge of God, how- 
ever, is not susceptible of such undeniable proofs 
as is the existence of the North Pole or of electri- 
city. It therefore cannot be called knowledge in 
the strict sense of the word, but must be satisfied 
to be termed a belief, a strong, convincing and un- 
shakable belief, yet still a belief. 

The belief in God inculcated into our minds 
when we were still children is somewhat shaken 
in the ^^storm and stress'- period of life, but grows 
stronger and stronger as we grow older and think 
more deeply of man and the world he lives in. 
When the child hearing the thunder and seeing the 
lightning asks in astonishment, ^^Who does it?", he 
is told, as were the children of Israel at the foot 
of Mount Sinai, that it is God. When his wonder- 
ing eyes turn to the star-lit heavens and he asks 
for the name of the owner of such a beautiful 
place, he is told that his name is God. To the 
unthinking man the answer received in his child- 
hood is quite satisfactory and he bothers himself 
no more about it. But the thinking man is driven 
to find out for himself how the questions which 
puzzled his budding intellect can best be answered 



BELIEF IN GOD IS NECESSARY 11 

in the light of maturer thought. All the answers, 
however, which the thinking mind can give to the 
question "Who created the Universe?" lead back to 
God, and the most profound philosopher is bound 
to go back to his childhood days and repeat what 
his unphilosophizing mother told him when he 
bothered her with his childish questions as to who 
causes the roars of thunder and the flashes of 
lightning. 

But here it might well be asked, What use 
is there in all philosophy about God if we get no 
better results? Why devote so much time and 
thought to solve a problem w^hich has baffled all 
philosophers and seems to be without a solution? 
To this I have a double reply. In the first place, 
the man who is born with the instinct of philoso- 
phizing will philosophize without regard to conse- 
quences or results. He follows the bend of his 
nature, as the captive squirrel hides away nuts 
for the winter. To be engaged in finding the truth 
is both his pleasure and his reward. The great 
Lessing has well said: "If God, holding in one 
hand complete truth, and searching after truth in 
the other, were to say to me, ^Man, choose!' I 
should beseechingly say to God: "give me the 
searching after truth, for the whole truth is only 
for thee." 



12 WHAT IS GOD? 

In the second place, there is after all an im- 
mense difference between the God believed in by a 
child and the God believed in by the thinker. The 
child's idea of God is that of a big, powerful being 
who does as he pleases. "He maketh poor and 
maketh rich, he killeth and maketh alive.'' He is 
an absolute ruler of the Universe; while the think- 
er's God rules more like a monarch limited by a 
constitution. The child's God has the heavens for 
his throne and the earth for his footstool, the 
thinker's God is the "All-in-All." 

There are some people, however, who object to 
all philosophy about God on the ground that it 
does a great deal of harm by weakening the faith 
in God. They claim that we must believe without 
asking any questions. But the man who is afraid 
of examining his faith shows by that very fear that 
he has some doubts himself and is not quite sure 
that his faith will stand the acid test of reason. 
In bygone times every one who dared express a 
doubt about the truth of the current belief exposed 
himself to severe punishment and relentless perse- 
cution. Happily we have reached a stage of civili- 
zation when blind religious fanaticism is powerless 
to suppress philosophical inquiry and to put out 
the light of reason by brute force. When recently 
the papers reported the case of a man who was 



BELIEF IN GOD IS NECESSARY 13 

arrested in the State of Connecticut for blasphemy, 
everybody seemed to be surprised that there was 
still such a law on the statute books of a modern 
State, but nobody had any fear that that man will 
share the fate of Socrates, Jesus and thousands of 
others who forfeited their lives because they dared 
to doubt the truth of the current religion. The old 
idea of God to whom the blood of sacrifices is a 
"sweet savor" still survives in the brains of some 
people, but fortunately those people are in posses- 
sion of some other ideas of culture and civilization 
which counterbalance their crude idea of God and 
put a damper on their zeal for burning heretics. 
Such fanatics are happily decreasing in numbers 
and will soon pass away altogether, because hu- 
manity has reached the age of thought, and thought 
is the most powerful weapon against religious and 
political tyrants and oppressors. That is the rea- 
son why fanatics hate it and try to suppress it. 
But thought can never be stopped. One might 
just as wxll try to stop the swelling up of a spring, 
or the bursting forth of flowers when kissed by 
the sunshine. The body may be chained and fet- 
tered, but there are no prison bars strong enough 
to confine thought. To thought may be applied 
what the prophet Isaiah said of Israel, the nation 
of thinkers: No weapon that is formed against 
thee shall prosper. (Isa. 54:17) . 



14 WHAT IS GOD? 

The thinking man then clings to the idea of 
God, although he must abandon the absurd notions 
of God which have come down to us from the child- 
hood of humanity. Reason compels us to believe 
that God is, but leaves us helpless when we try to 
define God. When a great philosopher was asked 
to give a definition of God he replied : ^^If I could 
define God I would be God myself. It takes a God 
to define God.'' And yet, we may sometimes de- 
fine a thing by pointing out what it is not. Ac- 
cordingly, many religious thinkers and philoso- 
phers in the past have endeavored to describe God 
in a negative way by enumerating the qualities 
which he does not possess, as for instance, that he 
is not created, that he does not change, that he is 
not limited by time and space. Generally the God 
of the philosophers bears as little resemblance to a 
man as possible, while the God of the unthinking 
multitude was made out to be very much alike to 
a man, only that he was a man of gigantic propor- 
tions. The Greek and Roman gods were only en- 
larged copies of Greek and Roman men and wo- 
men. Even in this enlightened age the average re- 
ligious man or woman thinks of God as a powerful 
being who, like a big policeman, watches over the 
life and property of the people and arrests the 



BELIEF IN GOD IS NECESSARY 15 

transgressors of the law. Fear is the basis if not 
the origin of all religions. There are some people 
who think that if you take away the fear of God 
there would be chaos in society, as the restraint of 
human passions for lust and murder would be 
gone. I believe this is a mistaken notion. Most 
of the criminals in prison are persons who have 
been brought up in the fear of God, and there are 
plenty of bad men and women out of prisons who 
profess to fear God and even love God, probably 
because they think that he is kind to them by 
keeping them out of prison. In looking over the 
past history of man one cannot but conclude that 
the inhuman and cruel deeds perpetrated in the 
name and for ^^the glory of God" far outnumber 
the good deeds prompted by belief in God. When 
I therefore say that belief in God is necessary I 
do not mean to say that it is necessary for the 
maintenance of civilized society, but what I mean 
is that it is a necessary conclusion of the thinking 
mind. 

Free and independent thought does not rob a 
person of his God. On the contrary, it gives him 
a nobler and more rational idea of God. There is 
in the Talmud a very interesting story of a Eoman 
governor who once said to Rabbi Gamaliel that in 
reading the opening chapters of the Bible he found 



16 WHAT IS GOD? 

that God was a thief, since he stole a rib from 
Adam. The Rabbi's daughter overheard this and 
asked her father's permission to answer the ques- 
tion. He gave his consent. The girl stepped for- 
ward, and feigning to be in distress, she lifted her 
arms and cried out: ^^My Lord, I want your help, 
I want justice to be done.'' ^^What has happened," 
asked the governor. "Last night," she answered, 
"a burglar entered our house and carried off our 
silver candlesticks, but he left behind him a golden 
candlestick." "What a generous thief that must 
have been," replied the governor, "I wish such a 
ihief would visit my house.'' "Well," exclaimed 
the Eabbi's daughter, "that's the kind of thief God 
is. He stole a rib from Adam and left a beautiful 
wife in its place." So it is with reason. It takes 
away from us the old idea of a "great, powerful, 
and terrible God" who is "jealous and vindictive," 
but it does not leave us without a God in the 
world. On the contrary, it enlarges our vision of 
God and brings us into closer communion with the 
Supreme Power of the Universe. 

But while reason leads us to believe in God it 
does not help us in our efforts to find a definition 
of God. Says Emerson: "When we attempt to 
define and describe God, both language and thought 



BELIEF IN GOD IS NECESSARY 17 

desert us, and we are as helpless as fools and sav- 
ages/' 

And yet, "As the hart panteth after the water 
brooks, so panteth my heart after thee, O God." 
All of us know what it means to be thirsty, al- 
though only a scholarly man would be able to give 
an exact definition of thirst. A thirsty man is not 
in need of a dictionary to tell him what thirst is. 
Nor can his feeling of thirst be removed by having 
somebody else drink for him. The hunger and 
thirst for the knowledge of God cannot be satisfied 
by having somebody else think for us. We must 
do our own thinking, and we must in our thinking 
be fearless and ready to accept the conclusions of 
reason even if they clash with long-cherished opin- 
ions and beliefs. 



Chap. II. 

THE ETERNAL GOD. 

The Hebrew word for God, Jehovah, expresses 
the idea of eternity. ^^He is, was, and w^ill be,-' 
or, as the Psalmist expresses it in poetical form, 
^^Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever 
thou hast formed the earth and the world, even 
from everlasting to everlasting thou art God" 
(Psalm 90). There is a noticeable thing about the 
attribute of God's eternity. All other attributes 
which we ascribe to God are such as mortal beings 
possess in a smaller degree. For instance, when 
w^e say God is all-good, all-wise, all-powerful, we 
ascribe to God qualities with which we mortal men 
are also endowed. Goodness, wisdom, and power, 
are qualities that human beings are possessed of 
in a smaller or higher degree. Not so with eternity. 
There are no degrees in eternity. A thing is either 
eternal or not eternal. Therefore when we say God 
is eternal we ascribe to God a quality which we are 
lacking altogether. And this fact alone is sufll- 

18 



THE ETERNAL GOD 19 

cient cause in my humble opinion to throw doubt 
on the orthodox view of the eternity of God. For 
it may well be asked : Why has God kept the great 
boon of eternity all to himself, and doomed all his 
creatures to decay and death? Where is the good- 
ness of God in decreeing that we all must die? The 
answer given in the story of the Garden of Eden 
is not likely to satisfy an inquiring mind. 

But apart from this objection to the belief in 
the eternity of God, it seems to me that the whole 
idea of eternity is illogical. Strictly speaking there 
is no such thing as eternity. Everything in Nature 
changes and assumes other forms. In the world 
around us we see nothing but constant change. 
The sea that rolls its mighty waves before our 
eyes today is not the same sea we have looked at 
yesterday. The "eternal hills" are not the same 
that they were a thousand years ago. And w^e our- 
selves are constantly changing not only physically 
but also mentally. Change is indispensable to life. 
Suppose a man should build a palace and fill it 
with the finest things to eat and drink. If he 
locks the doors and windows and excludes the fresh 
air, all his fine provisions would decay and he 
would miserably perish. And why? Because the 
change of air was stopped and without such a 
change life must stop, too. Even death is nothing 



20 WHAT IS GOD? 

but a change of life. For in reality there is no 
death. In the words of the poet: ^There is no 
death ; what seems so is transition.'' What we call 
decay and corruption is only another phase of life. 
Nature does not recognize the distinction between 
clean and unclean, pure and impure. If things that 
become rotten would continue in their rottenness, 
we would have to move about rotten things; the air 
would be pestiferous, and life would be unbearable. 
But wise Nature has saved us from such a fate. 
She knows how to make corrupt things uncorrupt- 
ed, and how to make unclean things clean. Thus 
there is a constant change going on. Beauty turns 
into ugliness and ugliness into beauty again. The 
most beautiful man or woman is changed into a 
heap of dirt, and the finest flower withers and is 
thrown into the ash-barrel; but out of the corrup- 
tion there comes incorruption. 

The wise preacher said : "One generation goeth, 
and another generation cometh; but the earth abid- 
eth forever." ( Ecclesiastes 1:4). He probably 
meant by "the earth" not the planet on which we 
live, but mankind. It is mankind which lives on 
forever. Grandparents, parents, and children are 
only names for different divisions of mankind, just 
as yesterday, today and tomorrow are names for 
the divisions of time. Mankind is eternal, and like 



THE ETERNAL GOD 21 

time, it is without beginning and without end. 
And not onlj mankind as a whole, but also the 
unit of humanity is eternal. The former genera- 
tions live in the present generation, and the present 
will live in the generation to come. There is no 
fundamental change, only a change in the names. 
The grandparents were once parents and the par- 
ents will be grandparents. As the rain comes 
down from heaven and returns again to heaven, so 
there is a continual process of change going on in 
life of Nature and man, and not a drop of water 
is entirely lost. 

But why is it that we have such an instinctive 
fear of death? Why is it that very often the fear 
of death takes all the joy out of life and turns 
some people into mourners for their owm death? 
It seems as if Nature designed death as a scare- 
crow for the living. You remember how a farmer 
takes a few stout sticks, dresses them up like a 
man, and sets the imitation man up in his garden 
to scare away the obnoxious birds that prey upon 
the fruits of the garden. As birds are foolishly 
afraid of the scarecrow, so men are foolishly filled 
with the fear of death, Nature's scarecrow, design- 
ed to protect the fruits of life from the degradation 
of fierce passions, and also to induce people to 
make the present life richer and more fruitful. 



22 WHAT IS GOD? 

In reality, however, there is no death. There 
is only a continued change in the forms and ap- 
pearances of life. And this continual change takes 
place not only in physical things but also in in- 
tellectual and spiritual matters. Just as an old 
man would hardly recognize himself in a picture 
taken when he was a child, because of the great 
change in his facial features, so he would never 
recognize the features of his own mind in his boy- 
hood days. The changes which our minds under- 
go are especially noticeable in regard to religious 
beliefs. What we believe at the age of ten we no 
longer believe at the age of twenty, and beliefs we 
cherish at the age of twenty we are likely to discard 
at the age of forty. Some of the greatest thinkers 
of the world have changed the opinions which they 
had entertained in their earlier life. If a man says 
that he never changes his mind you may set him 
down as a man who has nothing in his mind to 
change. A man who never changes his mind is 
intellectually just on as low a level as the man 
who never changes his shirt. A wider outlook on 
the world expands the mind, and expansion im- 
plies change. Can any grown-up person believe 
that Santa Olaus comes down the chimney and fills 
the children's stockings with presents? And yet, 
some fanatics claim that we must believe in all the 



THE ETERNAL GOD 23 

stories of the Bible which were told us when we 
were young, and which originated when mankind 
was still in its infancy. The mind of man out- 
grows the beliefs cherished in childhood days, and 
rises day by day to higher and deeper conceptions 
of man and the world. 

There are, to be sure, men of great intellect 
and keen reasoning powers who profess a belief in 
a personal God who is the creator and governor of 
the universe. But this should not deter us from 
examining the truth for ourselves. For, in the 
first place, against their opinion we have the opin- 
ion of men of equally great intellects who deny the 
existence of a personal God. Recently the news- 
papers stated that "Professor Leuba, a well known 
psychologist of Bryn Mawr College, has ascertain- 
ed by a canvass of 5,500 American scientists that 
the greater part of them deny both a personal 
God and the immortality of the human soul.'' 

Moreover, just as a "little nonsense now and 
then, is relished by the wisest men'' so there is 
also in the brain of the wisest man some spot 
which is dark and unilluminated by the divine 
fire. However deep and penetrating human reason 
may be, it has its limitations. It seems as if Na- 
ture did not want anv one man to know too much 
and to learn her secrets. The power of thinking 



24 WHAT IS GOD? 

is itself the greatest mystery which the thinker 
himself is unable to explain. Why did the thought 
of a new continent strike Columbus and not the 
thousands of other sea captains? How does Edi- 
son discover things hidden to others? And why 
does it take him sometimes years before he suc- 
ceeds in persuading Nature to tell him one of her 
secrets? Why does Nature require so much coax- 
ing? When we hear or read of a great truth we 
cannot help feeling a little chagrined that we did 
not think of that great truth ourselves, so plain 
and simple it appears after somebody has revealed 
it. But Nature seems to hate all monopolies. She 
does not want one man to be knowing too much. 
And so she scatters her gifts, and gives to this 
man a few thoughts and to the other man a few 
others. To each she gives a fragment of knowledge. 
Only by skillful putting together of these frag- 
ments the whole truth will be known. 

The time is not far distant when man will as- 
cribe eternity not to God only, but also to man and 
Nature, when it will be generally recognized that 
the continual change in the world around us is 
only a change of outward forms and appearances, 
while in reality man and Nature are eternal and 
are "the same yesterday, today and forever." 



Chap. III. 

GOD AND THE WORLD. 

The old method of Jewish education was to be- 
gin with the beginning, that is, to start with the 
first book of Moses which begins: ^^In the begin- 
ning GOD created the heavens and the earth.'' If, 
as it sometimes happened, the boy was of an in 
quiring mind and would ask the teacher "and who 
created God?'' what do you suppose the teacher 
would do? Would he trj^ to reason with the child? 
Not at all. He would get indignant, box the boy's 
ears and tell him that one must not ask such ques- 
tions. Why does the teacher use such a striking — 
but unconvincing argument? Why not tell the 
boy that God was not created by anybody but is 
a self-created being. Probably the teacher was 
afraid that the answer might raise in the boy's 
mind another question, namely, if there is one be- 
ing that is self-created then there might be anoth- 
er such self-created being and maybe the world, 
like God, was not created at all but existed from 

25 



26 WHAT IS GOD? 

all eternity. In order to avoid such dangerous 
questions the teacher prefers to box the boy's ears 
and let it go at that. Unfortunately for the pro- 
gress of humanity, most of the boys are cowed by 
the teacher's answer and never again dare question 
anything that is in the Bible, and so the idea of 
a God who created the world and is also able to 
destroy it at any time is firmly implanted in the 
minds of the rising generation and sticks there 
throughout their lives. Such "a great, powerful 
and terrible God'' is well able to inspire men with 
fear and terror and to make them obev, for dis- 
obedience might rouse his wrath and cause him 
to destroy the world as it happened in the times 
of Noah, and with the cities of Sodom and Gomor- 
rah. My early idea of God was of this character. 
I was afraid to do anything wrong lest God should 
punish me. I feared God, but I can hardly say 
that I ever loved him. An object of fear can never 
be at the same time an object of love. I do not 
think that my children could really love me if 
they would fear me. All they might do is to show 
me the outward signs of love for the sake of pleas- 
ing me, but the real feeling of love would be lack- 
ing. Love is something that cannot be enforced 
by commandments and threats. 

In trying to escape from the difficulty of be- 



GOD AND THE WORLD 27 

lieving that God created the world out of nothing 
many thinkers fall into another difficulty. They 
are like a man walking through a field of thistles 
who while he disentangles himself on one side gets 
entangled on the other side. For the belief in 
creation out of nothing they substitute the theory 
that the world is self -created, which theory is just 
as hard to reconcile with common sense as the 
belief in creation out of nothing. Those who be- 
lieve that God created the world have at least some 
rational basis for their view. For God is admitted 
by all to be eternal and as God is possessed of an 
inherent mysterious power the creation cannot be 
said to be out of nothing. It was caused by that 
mysterious poAver. But that the world created it- 
self is something hard to comprehend. For in the 
first place they never tell at what time the world 
created itself and why it was at one time rather 
than another. In the second place, if they think 
that something can come out of nothing let them 
demonstrate it. Let them try to build a house 
without materials, and if they succeed, I will glad- 
ly accept their view. Furthermore, if God created 
the world out of nothing or the world is self-cre- 
ated, why is it that Nature is so careful about all 
things and does not allow the least thing to be 
lost? Nature would not have been so miserly if 



28 WHAT IS GOD? 

she were a creature of a generous God or if she 
had been her own creator. 

The source of the current belief in the creation 
of the world by God is the Bible. It is therefore 
worthy of note that the Bible contradicts itself 
on this point as it contains evidence to show that 
God did not create the world. The Bible tells us 
that when God was about to destroj^ the world by 
a deluge, Noah was told to build an ark and to 
take into the ark a pair of evevj animal ^^to keep 
seed alive upon the face of the whole earth.'' Now 
why had Noah to go to the trouble of having such 
an immense circus in his ark? Would it not have 
been much more convenient for God just to say 
one word and have all the animals created anew, 
just as they were supposed to have been created 
in the beginning? 

One reason why some philosophers of today 
who are not believers in the Bible advance the 
theory that the world was created, may be found 
in the desire to be original, to say something that 
has the charm of novelty even if it is not in ac- 
cordance with the truth. Some people find it much 
easier to indulge in fanciful speculations than to 
inquire diligently into the facts. It is also note- 
worthy that blind belief or what is called super- 
stition is not only to be found among the unedu- 



GOD AND THE WORLD 29 

cated and unthinking but also among the educated 
and cultured class. Thinking people will also 
sometimes blindly follow the leaders and accept 
their views without examining them. A false 
theory occasionally finds enthusiastic adherents 
who will fight for it and defend it with all their 
might. Such is the case with the false theory of 
the creation of the world by God or by itself. I 
am free to confess that I do not believe either that 
God created the world or that the world created 
itself. My belief is that the world was not cre- 
ated at all, but existed from the beginning of time. 
But it was not exactly the same world that we 
see today, for, as mentioned before, there is a con- 
stant change going on, one world is destroyed and 
another takes its place, one world dies and another 
is born. 

I consider it therefore also futile to try to 
trace the beginning of human life. We can never 
succeed in this effort, because no matter how far 
back w^e may go we cannot go beyond the point 
where the first human life appeared, and this first 
human life must also have descended from pre- 
ceding life. Life comes only from life, and with- 
out previous life there can be no life. The old 
question as to which was first, the hen or the egg 
will never be solved. But we may safely say that 



30 WHAT IS GOD? 

just as the apple tree grows from the seed of the 
apple, and the various animals are produced by 
their respective kinds, so did man descend from 
man. But who the first man was is a matter that 
will never be ascertained with any measure of ac- 
curacy. I think it therefore best to make up our 
minds to consider the question as to the origin of 
human life as being impossible of an answer. 

The relation of the world to God is that of a 
drop of water to the ocean. The ocean is composed 
of innumerable drops of water. You cannot take 
up a single drop and call it the ocean, nor can 
you say that this drop is not a part of the ocean. 
Likewise every grain of sand in the desert of Sa- 
hara is a part of the great desert. And so it is 
with God. Everything we see about us is part of 
God, "the whole earth is full of his glory," and 
God and the world are one and the same, insepar- 
able and indivisible. 



Chap. IV. 

THE RELATION BETWEEN GOD 
AND MAN. 

That God created man is a matter of faith, that 
man created gods is a matter of history. How 
keen is the satire of the great Hebrew prophet 
when he describes the idolater who after cutting 
down a tree ^^He burneth the half thereof in the 
fire; with half thereof he roasteth flesh; and the 
residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven 
image.'' (Isaiah 44). Idolatry is still practised 
by the majority of the people living in Asia and 
Africa and has not vanished altogether from the 
parts of the world where modern civilization pre- 
vails. But even where idolatry in the liberal sense 
is no longer known, its spirit of dark superstition 
still survives to the present day and moves people 
to run after all kinds of superstitious beliefs and 
practices. In our modern cities the fortune tellers 
are still doing a thriving business, and a Metro- 
politan newspaper publishes every day "EaphaeFs 
Astrological Predictions.'' 

31 



32 WHAT IS GOD? 

Fortunately, however, men like Terah who ac- 
cording to tradition cast his son Abraham into a 
fiery furnace because he refused to worship the 
idols have died out, and Abrahams' spirit of de- 
votion to and sacrifice for the truth is abroad in 
the land. The men and women of today are seek- 
ing light and enlightment and have abandoned their 
allegiance to blind faith. They do not feel in duty 
bound to believe a thing simply because their fath- 
ers and forefathers believed in it. They want to 
know first of all whether the thing is true or not, 
and if they find the thing to be unreasonable they 
rebel just as did Abraham of old. 

The question, "What relation is there between 
God and man?'' is one of the hardest and most 
complicated questions which confront the earnest 
thinker. I do not think that the human mind will 
ever be able to answer this question in an en- 
tirely satisfactory way. But we may at least make 
an earnest effort to solve it. We have been en- 
dowed with reason that we may use it in all mat- 
ters. Only blind fanatics refuse to use their reason 
in matters of faith and instead of trying to get all 
possible light on this momentous question they 
prefer to walk in darkness, and their leaders, in- 
stead of pointing to the right way of solving it, 
put obstacles in the way and mislead the seeker 
after light and truth. 



RELATION BETWEEN GOD AND MAN 33 

Those who are not willing to walk in darkness, 
and refuse either to believe or to disbelieve blindly, 
would do well in approaching this question to take 
due consideration of two things : The Outward Na- 
ture and the Inner Self. 

In Nature we find two forces opposing each 
other; goodness and badness, wisdom and folly, 
truth and falsehood, life and death, happiness and 
unhappiness. When the poet sings of the beauty 
of Nature he looks only at one side of her, for 
Nature has also a reverse side which is far from 
being beautiful. We find in Nature ugly animals, 
poisonous serpents, and insects, which threaten 
life and mar its beauty. Besides, all life is an ugly 
struggle for existence from which men seek relief 
in foolish and vain things. Folly seems to be the 
spice of life. A fool makes us laugh and we enjoy 
his foolery. The same holds good of falsehood. 
Without falsehood life would be intolerable. Peo- 
ple often say that they love the truth, but in so 
saying they are not telling the truth, for truth can- 
not get along in the world. Truth is opposed to 
all make-believe, and without make-believe, social 
life is almost impossible. Do we really love to 
hear the truth spoken? Suppose a young man has 
his lungs examined by a doctor, does he like to be 



34 WHAT IS GOD? 

told that he is suffering with consumption? Or 
does one who is diseased like to hear from the 
doctors lips' that his disease is incurable? Or does 
a man who fairly worships his wife like to hear 
that she has deceived him and that the children 
which he loves with all his heart are not his own? 
If people should suddenly decide to tell only for 
one day the truth, what an upheaval this would 
cause! What tragic results it would bring forth! 
Friends of long standing would become bitter ene- 
mies^ highly respectable households would be brok- 
en up, and social life would be shaken to its very 
foundation. It is therefore owing to falsehood that 
we are able to carry on social life. Truth makes 
people unhappy, and therefore they hate and shun 
it. Small wonder that there are so many false 
people in the world. The world compels people to 
deceive each other. 

And just as there are in Nature two powers, so 
there are in the Deity. There is nothing super- 
natural. All the miracles which men consider as 
being supernatural are in accord with Nature. If 
we think them to be supernatural, it is because 
we don't know Nature well enough. It is a mis- 
take to suppose that God is goodness only, or wis- 
dom only, or truth only. God is all things even, as 
the prophet Isaiah declared: "I form the light, 



RELATION BETWEEN GOD AND MAN 35 

and create the darkness; I make peace, and create 
evil; I am Jehovah, that doeth all these things.'' 
(Isa. 45:7) 

There is no absolute good or absolute evil in 
the world. The refreshing rain comes from the 
dark clouds, and when the clouds gather sunshine 
disappears. The seed of wheat must be buried and 
decay before it brings forth the waving stalks of 
grain. The more we learn of Nature the less we 
are liable to follow superstitious beliefs and prac- 
tices. 

The second requirement for obtaining a proper 
answer to the question at hand is the knowledge 
of one's own self. If a man searches his own 
heart and tries to find out the longings and as- 
pirations of his own soul he will understand and 
feel his near kinship with God. Every man is him- 
self a world on a small scale. As the artist is able 
to enlarge a small photograph to a considerable 
size, so man may get a large picture of the world 
by imagining himself to be enlarged a billion-fold. 
But man is generally unconscious of his exalted 
position. He runs after false gods, and remains 
blind to his own great importance and divine dig- 
nity. In short, he does not understand that he 
himself is a part of the divine, that God dwells 
in him as much as he does in the great world w^hich 



36 WHAT IS GOD? 

is only an enlarged copy of the smaller world call- 
ed man. He forgets that his own intellect differs 
from that of God only in a quantity but not in 
quality. To give an illustration: a drop of water 
taken from the ocean has in it all the qualities of 
the ocean, though it is no longer a constituent 
part of the ocean. 

The man who is always looking for God outside 
of himself reminds one of a story told of an absent- 
minded German professor, w^ho having much diflft- 
culty to remember in the morning where he had 
put his various articles of apparel before retiring, 
decided to write down on a piece of paper the 
exact places where he put them. Accordingly, he 
jotted down: "Hat is on the table, coat on the 
chair, vest ditto, shoes under the sofa, trousers on 
the bureau. Professor Schmidt in bed." On aris- 
ing the next morning he found everything as he 
had written it down, but was surprised not to find 
Professor Schmidt in his bed. 

The fact that God is to be found within our 
own breast makes the union between God and man 
permanent and indissoluble. Man can as little sep- 
arate himself from God as he can separate himself 
from himself. This idea of the inseparability of 
man from God is pratically expressed by the Psalm- 
ist when he says: "Whither shall I go from thy 



RELATION BETWEEN GOD AND MAN 37 

spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? 
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I 
make my bed in Sheol, behold thou art there. If 
I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in 
the uttermost parts of the sea ; even there shall thy 
hand lead me, and thy right hand shall seize hold 
of me.'' (Psalm 139) 

The indwelling of God in man makes man the 
greatest wonder in the universe. There is nothing 
more wonderful in the world than man. To give 
only one illustration: Let us imagine that one 
who has travelled a great deal would have taken 
a photograph of all the scenery and all the people 
he has seen, the album thus made would require 
tons of paper and would occupy a spacious library. 
But there are thousands and thousands of pictures 
taken without any photographic outfit, and stored 
away in a small corner of the head, and by a mere 
act of the will the pictures are rolled up before 
your mind and you can see again the scenes and 
persons you have seen years and years ago. Wond- 
er of wonders ! A few words spoken to you twenty- 
five or fifty years ago are so deeply imbedded in 
your brain that you can recall them with perfect 
vividness and clearness. Is not this alone suffi- 
cient proof that there is in man a part of the di- 
vine power, a spark of the divine fire? When 



38 WHAT IS GOD? 

Moses saw the bush burning and yet not being con- 
sumed he felt that God was there. So when we 
see a thought, a word, a visual or audible impres- 
sion made on our brain years ago and not being 
obliterated, we must feel that we ourselves are holy 
ground where God dwells continually. 

But, alas for our gross ignorance of our own 
divinity! It is this ignorance which is at the bot- 
tom of all idolatry, of all racial and national hat- 
reds, of all the bloody wars. This ignorance keeps 
people from seeing the true light and from hearing 
the true voice of reason ; it keeps men in darkness 
and superstition, and prevents them from walking 
in the bright paths of sunshine and happiness. 



Chap. V. 

WHO GOVERNS THE WORLD? 

In this free country the governor is chosen by 
the people. Is the governor of the world the free 
choice of the people? We poor mortals have no 
voice either in the making or in the execution of 
the laws of Nature. We are governed by an in- 
visible government w^hich is generally spoken of as 
the Supreme Powder. The existence of a Supreme 
Power is acknowledged even by men of the most 
radical type. When we try to get at the meaning 
of this Supreme Power, we find that it is not very 
much different from a personal God, who does as 
he pleases. 

If he wants to let it rain, it rains, if he wants 
the sun to shine, he shines. But if he does not 
want the sun to shine or the rain to fall, it is 
dark and there is a drought. But this is in my 
opinion a mistaken view. There is no God or Su- 
preme Being who can do as he pleases and over- 
turn the laws of Nature. I believe that Nature 

39 



40 WHAT IS GOD? 

consists of secret forces which are both rulers and 
ruled, that is, they govern and are governed. Each 
force exercises authority over the other forces and 
at the same time it obeys the command of those 
other forces. But if you are trying to think of one 
force only, you fail because Nature has no begin- 
ning and no end, and a thing that has neither 
beginning nor end cannot be represented in thought 
as one. 

Nature is like a chain made up of many links of 
forces each of which link influences the other links 
and is influenced by them. Now suppose each 
link thinking that there is one Supreme Link 
which has more power than the others should try 
to find that Supreme Link, would that not be a 
futile effort? Something like this is indicated in 
the phrase: "His servants ask each other: Where 
is the place of his glory?" But their question will 
never be answered, because there is in Nature no 
Supreme Lord, all her forces are both rulers and 
servants at the same time. Sometimes man is in- 
clined to think himself the lord and master of 
Nature. But he is not. In fact, there exists in 
Nature no absolute lord and master. The tyrant 
who makes all his subjects to tremble before him 
lives in constant fear of assassination, and his 
meanest slave enjoys a sounder and more undis- 



WHO GOVERNS THE WORLD? 41 

turbed sleep. The same is true of man who con- 
siders himself to have dominion over the animals. 
It sometimes happens that his rule is cut short by 
the sting of a poisonous fly. There is not a single 
ruler in all nature who is not at the same time a 
subject of and a servant to others. All Nature 
consists of individual small forces which rule in- 
dependently without having a higher ruler set over 
them. 

The world's government resembles in my opin- 
ion the government of the United States, except 
that it is free from political graft. Our President 
is one of the people elected by the people them- 
selves. The judges are also elected by the people, 
and so are the law-makers. And if any of the law- 
makers breaks the law he is sure to be punished 
by the executors of the law. And just as in our 
government the holder of an office generally adapts 
himself to the requirement of the office, so is the 
fate of every man adapted to his nature. More- 
over, we maj^ say that the fate of every man is in 
every man's own hand. There may be some ex- 
ceptions, but the rule holds good that most people 
suffer as a consequence of their own inherited na- 
tures. The thief suffers because one of his parents 
or grandparents was a thief and transmitted to 
him a thieving nature. And our children may 



42 WHAT IS GOD? 

also suffer for the sins we have committed. But 
divine Providence works in such complicated and 
confusing manner that we are unable to get at the 
bottom of things. The wind works in a strange 
manner, coming of a sudden and just as suddenly 
disappearing And yet, who will maintain that 
the wind is its own master and an entirely inde- 
pendent agent? There is no doubt some cause 
and purpose in its blowing hard and in its slack- 
ening down. The same is true of human sufferings. 

But the greatest sufferings that come upon man 
are those inflicted by his fellowmen. Unfortune- 
ately men hate each other and often call each other 
names like "mean brute," forgetting that such 
names reflect upon themselves. It cannot be de- 
nied, though, that there are some people who be- 
have worse than brutes. 

There are, however, some actions by which men 
make the life of their fellows miserable, but which 
have nevertheless a good influence on the develop- 
ment of the higher social life. There is nothing in 
Nature wholly bad, and there is some good con- 
cealed in the worst things. It would be easy to 
prove this to be true of almost all the wrong 
actions of men against their neighbors, but two or 
three illustrations will suffice. 

Who of us does not know how much it hurts to 



WHO GOVERNS THE WORLD? 43 

be laughed at? We are all very sensitive to ridicule, 
and a man would rather have people weep over 
him than laugh at him. It is therefore wrong on 
our part to injure the feelings of our fellowmen by 
ridiculing him. And yet, ridicule is not altogether 
bad. It deters people from doing foolish things- 
and losing the respect of their neighbors. The 
fear of being ridiculed has a wholesome effect on 
some people, and keeps them in the right path. 

The same is true of suspicion. How many lives 
have been wrecked by the habit of some people to 
suspect their neighbors of wrongdoing ! Many in- 
nocent people are made to suffer imprisonment and 
incur even the loss of life through being suspected. 
And yet it would not be good for society if there 
were no suspicion at all. Many a crime would re- 
main undetected and unpunished if we had over- 
confldence in our neighbors and would never sus- 
pect them of wrongdoing. Suspicion often gives 
the right clue to the detection of crime and has 
therefore also its good side. 

And now I come to the most common weakness 
of human nature, namely, selfishness which refuses 
to help a fellowman in distress. We often see a 
man who will deny aid to his own brother. But in 
this selfish behavior man only imitates Nature, 
which is parsimonious and miserly to an extreme 



44 WHAT IS GOD? 

degree. Nature has supplied us freely with the 
necessary air, light and water. If she had been 
more generous she would have supplied us also 
with food without compelling us to earn our bread 
with ^^the sweat of our brow." But Nature had a 
good reason for being stingy. She was solicitous 
of man's welfare which would be endangered with- 
out work. Idleness makes people unhappy and 
dangerous to society. Now let us suppose the case 
of a rich man who owning a large farm which he 
bought with money earned during long years of 
hard work. If his poor brother asks to be support- 
ed by him, one would expect that he could not 
refuse such a request. But Nature has provided 
the rich brother with a goodly amount of selfish- 
ness so that he does refuse him and makes the poor 
brother work for a living, which in the end is far 
better for him than to live on the charity of his 
brother. 

And just as in our form of government the exe- 
cution of the laws is not in the hands of the law- 
making body, so it is also in Nature. One force 
delegates another force to execute its laws. And 
if the child is punished, it does not know why it is 
punished, but it is the penalty paid for his father's 
transgressions. And where such a form of govern- 
ment exists, it is impossible to know the exact 



WHO GOVERNS THE WORLD? 45 

cause of punishment, just as the prisoner cannot 
argue with the prison guard about his guilt or in- 
nocence. The prison guard has nothing to do with 
the cause of his imprisonment. His only business 
is to see that the prisoner does not escape from the 
sentence imposed by the judge. 

But, I might be asked, why should a criminal 
be punished at all? Is he to blame for having 
been born with a criminal tendency? If the fath- 
ers have eaten sour grapes should the teeth of the 
children be set on edge? My reply to this is that 
crime must be punished no matter what its origin 
is. When a man takes poison the law of Nature 
takes its full course whether he takes the poison 
by accident or with suicidal intent. We may have 
pity for the man who has inherited criminal ten- 
dencies, but we cannot let him escape from the 
results of his bad inheritance. I may point out, 
however, that in this case, as in many other cases. 
Nature shows herself to be neither excessively kind 
nor extremely cruel. While religious teachers 
promise as a reward for good behavior eternal bliss 
and as punishment for bad behavior eternal tor- 
tures. Nature does not deprive the bad people of 
all hope, but gives them an opportunity of becom- 
ing good again. There is in every good man some- 
thing bad, and in every bad man something good. 



46 WHAT IS GOD? 

The good man therefore will sometimes transmit 
to his children the bad traits that is in him, while 
the bad man will transmit to his children the good 
traits that he possesses, and in this way he becomes 
rehabilitated through the good qualities his child- 
ren show in their lives. Nature does not go to ex- 
tremes, but preferring the middle road she sees to 
it that there should be no excess either in goodness 
or in badness. 

The question : ^^Who governs the w^orld/' is af- 
ter all not so difficult to answer as would be the 
question: ^^How should the world be governed.'' 
I have no doubt that this question would receive 
a thousand different answers. But as it is, we 
have no say in the matter of world government, 
and are forced to submit to it whether we like it 
or not. To quote an old Eabbinical saying : 

"Perforce Thou wast formed, and perforce thou 
wast born, and thou livest perforce, and perforce 
thou wilt die, and perforce thou wilt in the future 
have to give account and reckoning before the Su- 
preme King of Kings, blessed be he." 

My answer to the question: "Who governs the 
world,'' may be summed up as follows : 

We ourselves are the government of the world; 
we ourselves execute the eternal laws by punish- 
ing others, and others again act in accordance with 



WHO GOVERNS THE WORLD? 47 

the law by punishing us. We ourselves are a part 
of the divine forces which govern the eternal world. 
This view of the government of the world is 
not so cheerless as it appears at a first glance. 
True, it deprives us of the hope of having our 
destiny changed by prayer and supplication to God, 
but, on the other hand, it tends to make us re- 
signed to our inevitable destiny, and to bear cheer- 
fully any burden of life laid upon us by a myster- 
ious force acting in accordance with fixed and un- 
changeable laws. 



Chap. VI. 

GOD AND NATURE 

An old Talmudical legend may fitly introduce 
this chapter. When Abraham became convinced 
that his father's idols of gold and silver were un- 
worthy of worship, so the legend runs, he went out 
to seek the true God whom he might worship. 
When he saw the sun rise in his majesty and splen- 
dor, he fell on his knees and worshipped all day. 
But when the sun declined and set, Abraham per- 
ceived that the sun could not be the supreme power 
of the universe, for his glory was of a transitory 
character. The same was the case with the moon 
and the countless stars. Then Abraham saw a 
forest on fire. The mighty oaks were consumed 
like stubbles of the field. Here is the great power 
of the universe, Abraham said to himself, and he 
worshipped the fire. But soon a great cloudburst 
came and extinguished the fire. Can it be that 
water is the superior power? If so, how does it 
come that the clouds wall carry it wherever they 

48 



GOD AND NATURE 49 

please? But perhaps the clouds are supreme? If 
so, how could the winds drive them hither and 
thither? Is the wind then the supreme power? 
Not at all, for man is able to resist it. And so 
Abraham concluded that God is not a God that can 
be perceived by the senses, but only the inward 
eye can behold him. 

This legend teaches us that God has given to 
man the power of thinking, and the more man uses 
this gift, the more grateful he will feel towards the 
giver. As the reasoning power of the human race 
grows in volume and intensity, so does the inner 
conviction of the human race, that there is a God 
from whom all things come and in whom we live 
and move and have our being. 

But while the belief in God is universal, there 
is some difference of opinion concerning the 
relation between God and nature. There are some 
people who think that God and nature are one and 
the same, and that there is nothing that can be 
said of nature that cannot be said of God, and 
vice versa. To my mind this is a wrong view, and 
I fully believe that God is not the same as nature, 
but is above nature. God is, as it were, the mana- 
ger of nature and her various forces, and he uses 
nature to do his will and execute his commands. 

We cannot imagine how God could govern the 



50 WHAT IS GOD? 

world without the instrumentality of nature. To 
say that God could do without nature is equivalent 
to saying that Paderewski could be a great pianist 
even if he didn't use the piano, or, that a sea cap- 
tain could be a great navigator Avithout having a 
vessel at his service. It seems to be, then, clear 
that God and nature are not identical, but they 
stand in the same relation to each other, as does 
the artist to his instrument, or the engineer to his 
locomotive. 

It is of great importance that we should have 
the right view in this matter, for this is not merely 
a theoretical question but there is also a practical 
side to it. Those who think that God and nature 
are the same are, of course, deprived of the faith 
in the providence of God. For if God is only na- 
ture, then there is little hope for a good and kind 
providence. What we know of nature is that it 
works constantly, according to firmly established 
rules, and like the goddess of justice, she holds the 
scales with blindfolded eyes. 

Quite different, however, is our view of life 
when we recognize the great truth that God is not 
identical with nature, but over and above it. The 
recognition of this truth leads to the belief in 
God's providence and creates in our hearts a feel- 
ing of implicit trust and confidence. 



GOD AND NATURE 51 

I am firmly convinced that there is a divine 
providence and that the world is governed not by 
natural laws, but by the will of God. One or two 
illustrations will confirm my belief: Supposing 
you take two children born in the same hour and 
bring them up in a different way. The one baby 
is raised in accordance with the best approved 
scientific methods, and the other is neglected; the 
one grows stronger every day, and the other grows 
sickly and puny. And yet it may come to pass 
that the stronger baby dies off while the weak one 
lives to a ripe old age. Would this be in accord- 
ance with nature? Hardly. Such a case would 
only be explicable on the theory that it was divine 
providence that arranged things in opposition to 
the natural order. 

Disbelievers in divine providence would prob- 
ably retort by saying that it was mere chance 
which killed the stronger child, some germ of di- 
sease happening to find its way into the baby's 
system. It was nothing more than the result of 
chance which we can see every day in the failure 
of bright men and the success of stupid and brain- 
less fellows. To this I reply : Speak not of chance ! 
There is no such thing as chance in this world. 
I believe in a divine management of this world. 

Take another instance: Many a beautiful and 



52 WHAT IS GOD? 

lovely young girl remains single, or, when married 
gets a blackguard of a husband, while the homely 
and dull girl will often get the brightest and best 
of husbands. You will say it is destiny. But 
what is destiny? It is nothing but the divine ar- 
rangement made by Providence. 

When a building collapses, and the people 
w^hich were at the time in and near the building 
are killed we find it to be quite natural. But, 
what if some people escape from being killed, is 
that also natural? I w^ould rather say it was by 
a miracle that these were saved. A divine provi- 
dence did so guide the falling bricks in their down- 
ward march that the people were not hit by them. 

I trust the reader will bear with me when I 
relate an incident in my own life which has im- 
pressed me with the unshakeable conviction that 
there is a providence guiding the affairs of life. 

One day I was about to place a bottle of soda 
water in the ice-box used in my office. The ice-box 
was set up quite high so that when I removed the 
lid from the top my face was on a level with the 
box. Presently there was a terrific noise heard all 
over the shop. The bottle of soda water exploded 
and fine pieces of glass were sent flying in every 
direction. My face was hit by some of the frag- 
ments but I escaped unhurt. For days afterwards 



GOD AND NATURE 53 

I smfered from the terrible thought of what might 
have happened if any of the glass splinters had 
struck my eyes. To be blind is in some respects 
worse than to be dead. Now I am firmly convinced 
that it was an act of divine providence w^hich so 
guided the flying particles of glass that my eyes 
were saved from destruction and my life was pre- 
served for the sake of my family and for the sake 
of whatever good I might do to my fellowmen. 

How blind are we, poor mortals not to see 
everywhere the footprints of a wise deity. Look 
not for God in the starry heavens above, or in the 
depths of the ocean, or in the bowels of the earth. 
No! You can see traces of Him right where you 
are ! Consider how mother earth, spinning around 
the sun at a high speed, supports your feet and 
provides you with food and raiment! Think of 
the majestic sun sending forth his golden beams to 
give light and heat! And when this planet turns 
from the sun, and, as it were, veils its face, then 
millions of stars appear on the sky to tell of God's 
glory. Can you not hear what those twinkling 
stars are telling you? This is what they are say- 
ing: Thou puny little man, hast thou ever tried 
to count us? Canst thou tell our age? Dost thou 
know who has begotten us? Ah! Thou art silent 
and thine eyes sink to the ground in confusion and 



54 WHAT IS GOD? 

shame ! Thou wouldst rather fasten thy looks upon 
the ground, where thou thinkest to be the master 
and ruler. But in this thou art miserably mis- 
taken, too. For even there thou art weak as a fly. 
In the midst of life's pleasures and enjoyment, 
even while thou art dancing and singing, thou art 
in danger of death and destruction. The tiniest 
earthquake might brush thee and thine aside as 
easily as the housevv^ife brushes away a spider's 
web. And this weak fly boastingly assuming the 
title The Crown of Nature,' believes in himself 
but disbelieves in God! 

There are some people who having lost their 
faith in God, take refuge in Nature. They ascribe 
to Nature all the attributes usually ascribed to 
God. They speak of ^^Kind Nature," ^^Wise Na- 
ture" and so forth. In my opinion Nature is 
neither kind nor wise. If Nature were kind she 
would not allow death breeding microbes to multi- 
ply so greatly; if she were wise she would have 
arranged things quite differently from what they 
are. Nature has no heart and cares little for human 
welfare. But man may learn from her good and 
valuable lessons, just as we may learn from our 
enemies the most efficient methods of success in 
life's struggles. As a matter of fact, the oldest and 
finest free public school in the world is that estab- 



GOD AND NATURE 55 

lished and maintained by — Mother Earth. This 
venerable teacher is up to date in her method of 
teaching by object lessons. The books used in her 
schools never went through the printing press, the 
letters being formed of stars and mountains, woods 
and streams. The only trouble in the schools of 
nature is the lack of discipline. There is no way 
of punishing inattentive or tardy pupils, and no 
truant oflQcer looks out for children playing 
"hooky.'' I often wish there were some way of com- 
pelling every man, woman and child, living in the 
dark and dreary tenement houses of overpopulated 
cities, to attend our great mother's school at least 
for a few weeks during the year. We would then 
have manlier men and womanlier women, and so^ 
cial life would be more in harmony with the eternal 
laws of life which are written on the tiniest leaf 
as well as on the mighty forest, on the pebble as 
well as on the Rocky Mountains, on the drop of 
water as well as on the briny sea. City life builds 
up a Chinese wall between man and nature, and 
puts asunder what God has intended to be united. 

To give an illustration of the kind of lessons 
taught in the school of nature I must ask the read- 
er to transport himself in imagination to the side 
of a waterfall. 

Look how the water plunges down the preci- 



56 WHAT IS GOD? 

pice. One stream after another rushes down to be 
swallowed up by the seething mass of water below. 
While the eye delights in the beauty of the scene, 
the soul is seized with a feeling of mysterious awe. 
We feel that we stand in the presence of a great 
mysterious power which commands the streams of 
water to hurl themselves against the rock and they 
obey with alacrity, although it looks as if they were 
hurrying to be annihilated. 

Now let us consider for a moment a few of the 
many thoughts suggested by the sight of a water- 
fall. 

1. Each of us is like a stream of water. We 
jostle and push those that are in front of us, and 
are in turn jostled and pushed by those behind us. 
There is no lagging behind in life's journey, w^e 
must go forward and meet the destiny that awaits 
us. 

2. We recall the words of the wise w^oman of 
Tekoa : "For we must needs die, and are as water 
spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up 
again" (II Sam. 14:14). Miles and miles these 
millions of water-drops have traveled together in 
close companionship, until they have reached this 
place to be suddenly and without warning torn 
apart and separated forever. 

Here is a young couple walking together in 



GOD AND NATURE 57 

the love-lit path of life. Their souls are bound up 
with each other, their hearts beat as one. But sud- 
denly on reaching the summit of their happiness 
they are separated by the grim hand of death. There 
we see a happy family journeying on the road of 
life. Everything looks serene and joyful, and not 
a cloud shows on the horizon. All of sudden the 
sky darkens, a stormy cloud appears, and the father 
or mother is snatched away from their midst. In 
vain do those left behind look for the return of 
their beloved, and their tear-stained eyes gaze upon 
the vacant chair in mute resignation. 

3. The waters rushing dowm the falls do not 
stop there, but flow on at the lower level until, after 
mingling with the ocean, they begin again the end- 
less journey and are carried again to the heights 
from which we see them fall. Is not this a good 
lesson for us not to give up when we are jolted in 
our way and are suddenly dragged down by mis- 
fortune? Does it not teach us to be patient in our 
state of lowliness and humiliation, and never stop 
until we reach again the height of our ambition? 

Like the waterfall there are a thousand and 
one objects in Nature from which valuable lessons 
may be drawn. But Nature herself cares but little 
whether or not we learn from her. She is cold and 
indifferent to the fate of mankind and remains 
unmoved in the midst of continual changes. 



Chap. VII. 

GOD AND THE DEVIL. 

There is perhaps no book in the world's litera- 
ture that contains so much profound philosophy 
and lofty poetry as the Book of Job. This book 
begins with a story where the Devil is introduced 
as one of the chief actors. Let me quote a few 
verses of that wonderful book: 

^^Now it fell upon a day that the sons of God 
came to present themselves before the Lord, and 
Satan came also among them. And the Lord said 
unto Satan: ^^Whence comest thou?'' Then Satan 
answered the Lord and said : ^^From going to and 
fro in the earth, and from walking up and down 
in it." And the Lord said unto Satan: "Hast 
thou considered my servant Job?" (Job 1:6-8). 

It is evident that the writer of the Book of Job 
did not think that Satan had the power to do as he 
pleased, but that he is dependent upon the authori- 
ty of God. Satan is represented as bringing upon 
Job all the miseries and sufferings only after God 

58 



GOD AND THE DEVIL 59 

had given liim permission to do so. In later times, 
however, Satan came to be viewed as one w^ho is 
hostile to God and acts contrary to God's will. 

It is a noteworthy fact, how^ever, that the Jews 
never took the Devil too seriously, always subordi- 
nating his power to the will of God and even the 
will of those w^ho were in close communication with 
God. This is clearly shown by the legend of Ash- 
modoi — another name for the Devil — w^hich de- 
lighted my boyish fancy and which may interest 
some of my readers who never heard it before. 

When King Solomon was building the Temple, 
so the legend goes, he found himself greatly em- 
barrassed by the commandment in Exodus 20 :26 
which prohibits the use of iron tools in getting the 
stones for the altar. On consulting with his wise 
men he was told that there was a worm called 
"Shomir" which was able to cleave asunder any 
substance it was allowed to crawl on. This Shomir 
was created at the beginning of the world, and his 
whereabouts were known only to Ashmodoi, the 
prince of the devils. Now the problem was to get 
hold of Ashmodoi, whose headquarters were in the 
forest of Lebanon. Solomon despatched his secre- 
tary to find him. By a clever ruse Solomon's mes- 
senger put wine into the fountain from which 
Ashmodoi drew his supply of water. Ashmodoi got 



60 WHAT IS GOD? 

drunk and was overpowered by Solomon's men who 
forced him to go with them to Jerusalem. While 
on the way to Jerusalem Ashmodoi behaved 
strangely. On seeing a drunken man fall he helped 
him to his feet. On passing a wedding procession 
he shed tears. When he heard a man ordering a 
pair of sandals that would last him seven years, he 
laughed and his laughter became uproarious when 
they passed a fortune teller plying his business on 
a street corner. After telling King Solomon where 
the Shomir can be found he was asked about his 
strange behavior on the way. ^^Why did you help 
the drunkard?" "Because'' Ashmodoi replied "he 
was a thoroughly bad man who had no prospect 
whatever of a future life, and so I was prompted 
to make this life a little more comfortable for him." 
"Why did you weep at the sight of the wedding 
procession?" "Because I knew that the bridegroom 
was doomxcd to die within a month." "Why did 
you laugh at the man ordering sandals to last him 
seven years?" "Because I knew he would not live 
more than seven days." "And why was your laugh- 
ter still more increased at seeing the fortune 
teller?" "Because that fool pretending to look into 
the future did not know that right beneath the 
place he was sitting there was buried a great 
treasure." 



GOD AND THE DEVIL 61 

This legend, however, does not represent the 
Devil in the way that he was pictured by the ma- 
jority of the people in the dark ages. The most 
common belief was that God was the author of 
every good thing, and the Devil the author of every 
evil thing. God was praised for all the good things, 
and the Devil was blamed for all the ills of life. 
Religious people believed in the Devil as strongly 
as they did in God. Even during the Middle Ages 
the belief in the Devil was universal. Luther, the 
great reformer, is known to have had many a strug- 
gle with the Devil, and one day, he got so angry 
with the Devil that he threw his inkstand at him. 
Even at the present time the Devil is a very real 
thing to many people. There seems to be among cer- 
tain people an eleventh commandment which runs : 
"Thou shall not take the name of the Devil in vain.'' 
In fact, some people who have lost their faith in 
God, will still cling to their faith in the Devil. 

Now, it is needless to say that a thinking man 
has no fear of the Devil, and has only pity for those 
who still cling to that gross superstition which has 
haunted the minds of men and caused them to burn 
poor witches and persecute anyone who was sup- 
posed to be in league with the Devil. 

But while it is impossible to think of a personal 
Devil, such as we see in paintings, with the cloven 



62 WHAT IS GOD? 

foot and horns and tail, it cannot be denied that 
there is in this world a mysterious force which 
works mischief and is the source of all the evil. 
This force is the counterpart of that other mysteri- 
ous power which we call God and which is the 
source of all good. 

One of the seven names for God in the Hebrew 
language is "El" which is derived from a word 
meaning power. This power in my opinion, con- 
trols both the good and the evil forces in the world. 
It is the Supreme Power and dwells not only in the 
Universe but also in the souls of men. Besides 
that Supreme Power there is no room for any such 
personality as the Devil. Evil spirits were sup- 
posed to prowl around during the dark hours of 
the night and to retreat with the dawn of the morn- 
ing. Well, the dawn of morning has come for hu- 
manity and the Devil with his hosts of evil spirits 
must disappear to return no more. 

But only the personal Devil is disappearing, the 
spiritual still remains. What I mean by spiritual 
Devil is the evil desire of the human heart, the 
temptation to go the wrong way, the inclination to 
satisfy the pleasures and appetites of the moment 
at the expense of the higher duties in life. There 
are in every human breast two powers struggling 
for supremacy, the good and the evil principle. This 



GOD AND THE DEVIL 63 

struggle is renewed every day and only stops with 
our last breath. When the good principle is victor- 
ious we become godly men, when the evil principle 
is allowed to rule us we become ungodly and 
devilish. 

But while man is equipped with reason and will 
power to fight against the evil principle within him, 
he often is helpless and defenceless against the evil 
forces in the world around him. How many are 
the victims of cruel and heartless Nature! How 
often are the best laid plans of man brought to 
naught by the mysterious evil forces which Nature 
displays in earthquakes, in storms, in droughts and 
epidemics. What is man's life but a constant fight 
with the devil in the dark, a never-ending game of 
blindman's buff? One of the company is blind- 
folded and then he is led about the room and the 
young folks buffet him, pull his ears, hit him in 
the back and have all kinds of fun with him in 
his temporary blindness. It sometimes happens 
that the blindfolded victim in his eagerness to catch 
his tormentors reaches forward, and missing his 
hold, tumbles to the floor to the great amusement 
of the onlookers. 

A little reflection shows how very much human 
life resembles this game and is mirrored by it. 
Every one of us walks around in this wide world 



64 WHAT IS GOD? 

with a veil over his eyes, groping in the darkness. 
It sometimes happens that we catch hold of the 
thing we are looking for and imagine that we have 
at least succeeded in our search for happiness. We 
plunge forward to seize it, but the devil cunningly 
trips us up and we go down sprawling to the 
ground, while the devil splits his sides with laugh- 
ter. And thus throughout life we play in the dark 
and quite often are wounded and bruised in life's 
battle, which is nothing after all but a very serious 
game of "blindman's buff'' played with his satanic 
majesty. 

Well has the poet described life's struggle in 
these lines: 

"Twist ye, twine ye I even so 
Mingle shades of Joy and Woe, 
Hope and Fear, and Peace and Strife, 
In the thread of human life." 



Chap. VIII. 

GOD'S AND MAN'S WISDOM. 

Is there a fixed and unalterable standard by 
which to judge what is wise and what is foolish? 
There may be such a standard in theory but when 
applied to practical life it is found to be just as 
unsteady and unreliable as is the standard of right 
and wrong, which just now has been completely 
upset by the European madness for gore and glory. 

Who is wise and who is foolish? Where does 
folly end and wisdom begin? What seems the acme 
of wisdom to one man, is looked upon as the height 
of folly bv another and vice versa. The great New- 
ton was described by his neighbors in the village 
where he lived as "an old fool who may be seen 
blowing soap bubbles all day/' while a man who 
devotes his whole life to increase his bank account 
by hook or crook is spoken of as "a wise guy." 

Success in life would be a poor test of a man's 
wisdom or folly. For many a fool may succeed 
where a wise man fails. Many an inventor has 

65 



66 WHAT IS GOD? 

died in poverty and neglect while brainless men 
made millions in marketing his inventions. 

As a matter of fact, wisdom and folly are never 
entirely separated from each other. We often no- 
tice a fool doing a very wise thing just as a blind 
hen will find a grain of corn, while a man whom 
we consider a wise man will commit a folly, and, 
the greater his wisdom the greater his folly. Where 
there is a great deal of light there is also a great 
deal of shadow, and when the brain is active there 
is danger of its acting in a wrong direction. 

Reason is the light by which man guides his 
footsteps while journeying through this world, 
so full of dangers and pitfalls. And just as the 
bright rays of the sun are sometimes obscured by 
dark clouds, so man's reason, his light and guide, 
is sometimes beclouded and he stumbles and falls 
by the wayside. 

Take for instance the case of a young married 
woman, having a beautiful home, a loving husband 
and lovely children. She has everything to make 
her happy and contented. But the old serpent which 
made its first appearance in the Garden of Eden 
crawls into the home and starts its devilish work. 
It is a serpent in the shape of a man, who makes 
love to her, and tries to alienate her husband's love. 
For a time she resists the blandishments of the 



GOD^S AND MAN'S WISDOM 67 

serpent, but in a moment of weakness, when a 
cloud hides her reason, she falls, the light of her 
life goes out, and darkness and sorrow settle over 
the beautiful home where happiness and virtue 
dwelt before. 

But not onl}^ in human life do we find wisdom 
and folly so near each other that it is only a short 
step from the path of wisdom to that of folly. It 
is the same in the life of nature, which is popularly 
supposed to be governed by wisdom only, and to be 
free from error and mistakes. It is an undeniable 
fact that Nature does not always act wisely. Just 
to mention one instance. For centuries and centu- 
ries Nature would bestow her choicest gifts upon 
an island in the sea, and in a moment of anger she 
sends a tidal wave which destroys and swallows 
up all the work of countless ages. 

There is a common saying, ^^Ignorance is bliss." 
This, like many other sayings, is only partially 
true. The bliss that ignorance gives is the bliss 
enjoyed by a stalled ox, who thinks only of his fod- 
der. The wise man may suffer from his wisdom 
but he has compensations in life which are denied 
to a fool. In fact, the fool himself seems to refuse 
the bliss of ignorance, as is shown by his desire to 
be looked upon as a wise man. There are even 
some fools so conceited that they think themselves 



68 WHAT IS GOD? 

wise above everybody else. A real wise man hap- 
pened to meet such a conceited fool, and after 
listening for a while to his foolish pretensions to 
deep knowledge, he said: ^^My friend, you and I 
know everything that can be known." "Indeed!'' 
exclaimed the fool, in a tone of exultation. "Yes," 
replied the wise man, "You seem to know every- 
thing except that you are a fool, and that — 1 
know." 

The only true wisdom without the admixture of 
folly is that attributed to God. His wisdom is pure 
and undeflled because there are no clouds to ob- 
scure his vision, and no passions to lead his judg- 
ment astray. Nothing is hidden to the divine wis- 
dom, and the whole truth is revealed before it, as 
the insides of the human body are made visible by 
the X-rays. 

No mortal man can ever reach such a high state 
of wisdom, because man's wisdom is the result of 
experience, and experience is limited in time and 
extent. And yet, it is well for us not to be dis- 
couraged in our search for wisdom. For even if the 
human w^isdom will never be as great as the divine 
wisdom, yet it differs from the divine wisdom only 
in quantity but not in quality. This idea was in 
the mind of the Rabbis of old when they ordained 
that on seeing a wise man one should pronounce 



GOD'S AND MAN'S WISDOM 69 

this benediction : "Blessed art thou, o Lord, King 
of the universe, who has given a portion of his wis- 
dom to a being of blood and flesh." By the way, 
I do not think that this benediction is very much 
recited even by the strictly orthodox Jew, for the 
simple reason that it is not so easy to decide who 
is really a wise man. Some people, I imagine, 
would never recognize a wise man even if they saw 
him, and others would be inclined to recite that 
benediction every time that they saw their own 
faces in the mirror. 

In contemplating the divine wisdom we are 
liable to be overwhelmed and stunned by its im- 
mensity and greatness, just as one feels his own 
littleness and insignificance when he suddenly finds 
himself in a great crowd of people. But the feeling 
of littleness will soon disappear by the thought that 
after all this great mass of people is composed ^ of 
single individuals such as he meets and greets on 
every street corner and therefore he need have no 
fear of them when they are assembled in large 
numbers in one place. So it is with the divine 
wisdom. While we cannot help being impressed by 
its greatness yet we need not be depressed by it, 
since we ourselves are a part and parcel of the di- 
vine wisdom, and we ourselves possess its sub- 
stance in a smaller degree. As the Niagara is made 



70 WHAT IS GOD? 

up of little water drops each of which is a part of 
the wonderful falls, and just as the vast Sahara 
is composed of tiny grains of sand so is the divine 
wisdom made up of smaller parts of intelligence 
possessed by man. 

Now it might be asked if we are all partakers 
of the divine wisdom how does it come that this 
wisdom is in most people so stunted in its growth? 
Whj^ is it that most of us never cut the wisdom 
tooth in a spiritual sense? Still more difficult be- 
comes the question when we try to account for ge- 
nius. What was it that made possible the appear- 
ance of men like Moses, Isaiah, Shakespeare, Wash- 
ington, Edison? It would require more than human 
wisdom to give a satisfactory answer to this 
puzzling question. We hear nowadays a great deal 
of talk about the influence of heredity and environ- 
ments. But heredity and environment utterly fail 
to account for the great men I have mentioned. 
Some people think that they have given a good 
answer when they say that a genius appears when 
the time is ripe for him, and that the demand for 
a genius will naturally create the supply. But this 
is hardly a correct answer, for we find that many 
great men appeared in the history of mankind and 
exerted no influence whatever on their contempo- 
raries who even hated and persecuted them. 



GOD'S AND MAN'S WISDOM 71 

As a matter of fact, however, it is impossible to 
explain satisfactorily the appearance of genius. 
Like a sudden flash of lightning a genius appears 
and performs his mission and as suddenly disap- 
pears, but not without making the path of hu- 
manity brighter by raising the average of intel- 
ligence and dissipating the clouds of ignorance and 
superstition. 

Just as in the physical world a force once put 
in motion continues to exist although in different 
forms, so in the realm of mind there is nothing lost. 
Everything that is manifested by the divine wis- 
dom continues to work in the shaping of man's 
destiny. When I see a moving picture show I can- 
not help thinking that perhaps Edison was inspired 
to his invention by reading the Bible story of Bel- 
shazzar's feast which tells of the handwriting on 
the wall. The thoughts of to-day are the children 
of yesterday and the parents of to-morrow, and in 
this sense Solomon was right when he declared: 
"There is nothing new under the sun.'' 

It is most unfortunate for mankind, however, 
that not only wise and noble thoughts are trans- 
mitted from one generation to another, but also 
foolish and ignoble thoughts. Much of the blind 
superstition of to-day is an heirloom of the past, 
and the czars of to-day are the spiritual successors 



72 WHAT IS GOD? 

of the tyrants of old. How much better the world 
would be if follv would die w^ith the fools and leave 
no heirs behind. But since such is not the case, it 
is the duty of the wise man to do all he can to ex- 
terminate the existing folly and to spread wise and 
good thoughts. 

Limited, however, as human wisdom must for- 
ever remain, the progress of humanity tends to in- 
crease its scope and to decrease the foolish spirit 
which is shown by men in their social intercourse. 
At present there are a number of people who fool 
others, not only for the sake of gain but also be- 
cause they consider it a sign of superior mentality 
to be able to fool other people. They tell of a man 
who on his return from a long voyage boasted that 
he had fooled all the people he met on his travels 
by telling them that his name was Max instead of 
his real name Jacob. While at present we are only 
guessing at some things, as the farmer tells the time 
by looking at the sun, we shall in the future be able 
to determine the exact state of things by means of 
instruments constructed by man's ingenuity, as the 
man with a well regulated watch can tell the time 
to the minute. 

And while at present men cudgel their brains 
to invent instruments of warfare and take pains to 
discover more efficient bombs and torpedoes in 



GOD'S AND MAN'S WISDOM 73 

order to destroy human life more quickly and more 
numerously, the men of the coming generation will 
vie with each other in inventing instruments that 
will contribute to the peace and happiness of the 
whole human family. 



Chap. IX. 

GOD AND RELIGION 

The outtvorn rite, the old abuse, 
The pious fraud transparent grown, 
The good held captive in the use 

Of wrong alone, 
These loait their doom, from that great law 
Which makes the past time serve to-day; 
And fresher life the world shall draw 

From their decay, 

G. Whittier. 



There is a saying attributed to Disraeli who 
when asked, ^^What is your religion?" replied, ^^The 
religion of sensible men." And what is the re- 
ligion of sensible men? "Sensible men never tell." 
From a diplomatic standpoint Disraeli may have 
been right, but from a moral point of view he was 
utterly wrong. For it is the duty of every man to 
tell the truth as he sees it, even at the risk of per- 

74 



GOD AND RELIGION 75 

sonal inconvenience. If wise men had abstained 
from telling the truth for fear of becoming un- 
popular, the world w^ould still be in grossest dark- 
ness, and we of to-day would worship images of 
wood and stone as our ancestors did in times past. 
Transfer tickets given by the street-car con- 
ductors used to bear the legend. ^^Good for this 
day only." It is the same with religion. Every 
religion is of a transitory character. It has its 
day, and when the day is past it becomes as value- 
less as an old transfer-ticket. It is then called a 
superstition. Someone has well said that super- 
stition is religion out of fashion, while religion is 
superstition in fashion. No^v if the devotees of re- 
ligion, like the devotees of fashion had been satis- 
fied to look with contempt upon those who are not 
dressed up as they are, all would have been w^ell. 
But to the eternal shame of humanity, the fol- 
lowers of religion alw^ays and everywhere consi- 
dered it a sacred duty to force their religious views 
upon others by the fire and the sword. Hence the 
awful spectacle presented in history of the most 
bloody and outrageous deeds committed in the name 
and in behalf of religion. Religious fanatics sought 
to gain the favor of God by being cruel to their 
fellowmen. Thej- imagined that the surest way to 
go to heaven was to turn this earth into hell. 



76 WHAT IS GOD? 

With the advance of civilization religious fa- 
naticism is subsiding, and only occasionally shows 
its ugly face, as for instance in darkest Russia, 
when an infuriated mob, urged on by priests of a 
religion which claims to be a religion of love, at- 
tacks innocent men, women and children in the 
most outrageous manner. Such outbreaks of re- 
ligious fanaticism are, however, getting rarer every 
day, and on the whole we may safely say that re- 
ligious people have lost the power, if not the will, 
to force their views upon others. 

In looking, however, only upon the evil religion 
has brought into the world, we get only one side 
of the medal. There is another side to it. Religion 
has been a mighty factor in the building up of our 
civilization. It has helped to subdue the savage 
mind by inspiring him with dread and terror of a 
power supernatural and superior to him, and has 
taught him subjection and obedience to the chief 
or ruler who usually claimed to govern by the grace 
of God, a claim which the German Kaiser in our 
modern times is still very loth to give up. More- 
over, religion has a useful function to perform 
even now. It is the opiate which is administered to 
suffering humanity for the purpose of producing 
sleep and forgetfulness of the thousand ills and 
pains of life. Religion has thus a very useful func- 



GOD AND RELIGION 77 

tion in life, since it helps people to bear up under 
the heavy load of misery and aflflietion. As long, 
therefore, as religion sticks to the performance of 
this high office, and does not meddle and interfere 
with those who think they can get along without 
religious comfort, we cannot help honoring and 
respecting her for the high and exalted service she 
is doing to humanity. 

But the trouble with religion, or rather with 
its representatives, is that they want to be more 
than mere comforters and consolers of mankind. 
They want to be the Lords and rulers of mankind. 
In order to show their importance they assert, first 
of all, that man is a religious being by nature. But 
in this they are obviously using words without 
meaning. If religion were one of the things which 
Nature demands what necessity would there be of 
having priests and preachers? Do we need any one 
to teach us the duty of taking food when we are 
hungry or seeking shelter from the storm? Has 
anybody ever heard of men being hired to preach 
the duty of race-preservation? All these things are 
natural instincts and are followed by mankind 
without any special set of men preaching and en- 
larging upon them. The fact that religion must be 
taught and continually preached to people is in it- 
self sufficient proof that there is no such thing as 



78 WHAT IS GOD? 

a natural religious instinct. Moreover, how does 
it come that Nature has failed to endow some men 
with the religious instinct? I, for one, am free to 
confess, that I am not possessed of the religious 
instinct. My belief in God, as I have shown in the 
First Essay, is based upon the unshakeable evi- 
dence furnished to my mind by facts of Reason and 
Nature. But as for religion, if by the word is meant 
a lot of forms and ceremonies commanded by God 
to be performed by man under penalty of punish- 
ment here or hereafter, there is absolutely not the 
faintest trace of it in my mental make-up. 

Some pious people will no doubt find a short 
and easj^ way of answering my objections. They 
will call me a freak of nature. But how does it 
come, I would humbly retort, that some of the 
greatest minds have been devoid of the religious 
instinct? Is Nature so irregular and slip-shod in 
her workings? 

Another fact which speaks against the assump- 
tion that religion is a natural thing may be seen 
in the multiplicity of religions. The faculties with 
which Nature endows man are the same among all 
races and nations of the earth. Why are there so 
many kinds of religion and so many divisions even 
among the followers of the same kind of religion? 
If Nature or God had been the author of religion 



GOD AND RELIGION 79 

we would have no such variety of it. As it is, every- 
body thinks his own religion was given by God, 
while that of the other fellow is nothing but a su- 
perstition and falsehood. The worshipers of Mo- 
loch sacrificed their own children to that cruel God. 
The faithful Hindu throws himself under the crush- 
ing wheels of the juggernaut, the pious Eussian 
will throw little Jewish infants from an upper- 
story window for the glory of God. Why does this 
supposed natural instinct show itself in so many 
different forms? And why does this "natural'^ 
instinct lead so many people to acts so diametrical- 
ly opposed and deeply revolting to the better in- 
stincts of man? 

It seems to me that there is no evidence what- 
ever for the divine authorship of any religion, and 
each and all of them bear the trade-mark of human 
manufacture. 

But we often have it dinned into our ears that 
religion is a matter of the heart and not of the 
head and we must believe blindly without asking 
any questions. That is a very convenient way for 
silencing all objections. But if people had never 
applied their test of reason to religious matters 
there would have been no progress whatever. We 
would all still worship idols of wood and stone. 

I believe, therefore, that it is the duty of every 



80 WHAT IS GOD? 

man to investigate for himself whether the religion 
he was born in is true or false, and if he finds that 
he cannot believe it he must say so without fear of 
consequences. At the same time, however, we should 
be tolerant and patient with those who are still 
under the spell of their childhood faith. A Free 
Thinker should not fall into the error common 
among religious people. He should not try to force 
his opinions upon others, but should rather trust 
to the power of truth to win the day. 

A little story told of Senator Hoar may help us 
to raise our estimate of the good work done by re- 
ligion for certain types of men : 

Senator Hoar, so the story goes, was asked by 
a friend whom he was showing the town of Glou- 
cester, Mass., what was the staple food of the people 
of that town. ^Tish,'' the Senator replied. "They 
say,'' rejoined the other, "that fish is good for the 
brains, but these people do not look very intelli- 
gent." "Well,'' drawled the Senator, "just imagine 
how they would look if they didn't eat fish !" It is 
awful to contemplate how some people would act 
if they had no religion at all. 

In almost all religions great stress is laid upon 
prayer to God. Just now there are prayers offered 
in all the churches of Europe for the success of the 
armies and navies in their fights with the enemy. 



GOD AND RELIGION 81 

If God granted all those prayers Europe would be- 
come a howling wilderness. Unfortunately the 
very people who profess to rely upon God to help 
them have not much confidence in their own pray- 
ers and strain every nerve to get all the men and 
munitions to obtain the victory. They tell of an 
itinerant preacher who came to a village where the 
people had been praying in vain for rain. The 
preacher told them that their prayers remained 
unanswered because they did not believe with their 
whole heart that God would answer their prayers. 
Thereupon he appointed a prayer meeting for the 
next day and admonished the people to come to 
the meeting with the blessed assurance that God 
would graciously listen to the supplication of his 
children. When on the following day all the people 
had assembled the preacher told them that there 
was no use of holding a prayer meeting as they had 
no real faith that God would grant their prayer. 
The people protested and said that they truly be- 
lieved. But the preacher said : "No, you don't ! For 
I am the only one that brought an umbrella along !'' 
Prayer to God is generally accompanied by 
praises of God. And what praises! so exuberant, 
so flattering ! No wonder that prayer coupled with 
that kind of praise remains unanswered. If a friend 
or a child of mine should ask me for a favor and 



82 WHAT IS GOD? 

would start by telling me what a glorious and 
wonderful man I am, I would be anything but 
pleased. Why should God be so much pleased hear- 
ing his endless praises sung? 

To get a true estimate of the nature of singing 
praises to God, let us imagine that millions of water 
drops which the clouds gathered up from the sea 
and let fall on dry land were by some miracle 
changed into human beings and endowed with rea- 
son and speech. It w^ould be quite natural for these 
transformed water drops on beholding the great 
and mighty ocean to become conscious of their own 
littleness and insignificance, and to be deeply im- 
pressed by the greatness and power of the ocean 
that carries on its bosom huge shipS;, and in a mo- 
ment of anger tosses them about like grains of sand. 
The former raindrops anxious to give expression 
to their feelings decide to build special buildings 
where they might assemble at stated times and 
speak and sing in honor of the ocean. By and by 
they become so imbued with the greatness and 
power of the ocean that their thoughts turn to the 
ocean in all their perplexities of life. If they get 
sick, they pray to the ocean to heal them; if there 
is a drought they pray for rain; if they start out 
to kill their enemies they pray for help, and if they 
feel that their life's course is run and they must 



GOD AND RELIGION 83 

return to the place whence they came, they make 
haste to ask the ocean's forgiveness of sins. Now, 
while the larger number of these transformed rain- 
drops act in the way described there is a minority 
of them who are of a different mind. This min- 
ority have not entirely forgotten their former state 
of existence. They remember that they have been 
at one time a part of the great ocean and therefore 
they do not join in the peans of praises sung to 
the ocean. They feel that having originated from 
the ocean they could not sing the praises of the 
ocean without praising themselves, and self-praise 
is not very becoming in any man. 

Every religion claims to have been revealed by 
God. Now since the various religions contradict 
each other, it follows that God contradicted himself. 
Let us take a simple case. The Jew claims that 
God commanded to keep the Saturday holy, the 
Christian makes the same claim for Sunday, and 
the Mohammedan for Friday. But not only did 
God contradict himself in the making of different 
religions, he also is represented as having changed 
his mind in regard to every existing religion. For 
there is not a single religion that has not under- 
gone important changes during the course of its 
development. For instance, God is represented in 
the Bible to have advised Abraham to commit biga- 



84 WHAT IS GOD? 

my by taking Hagar as an additional wife and to 
commit mnrder by sacrificing his son Isaac. Is it 
possible that God acted so inconsistently? As a 
matter of fact, when w^e find in the Bible ^Thus 
saith the Lord'' and read attentively what he said, 
we find it hard to believe, that he really ever said 
it. The old teachers of religion w^ere obliged to 
preface their remarks by a "Thus saith Lord'' in 
order to get the attention of the people, just as the 
Billy Sundays of to-day claim to have been told by 
God to warn the sinners of the everburning torture 
that is waiting for their sinful bodies in the hell 
of fire and brimstone. A thinking man will not 
believe blindly all the things that are said in the 
name of God, but will examine for himself whether 
the things are worthy of God or not, whether or no 
they correspond with the eternal principles of 
truth and justice. 

But while there is yet a great deal of blind be- 
lief there is also a great deal of blind unbelief, 
which is shown by people who deny everything 
without giving any reason for denial. The blind be- 
liever, for instance, believes that when God wanted 
to speak to Moses, he made him come up to Mount 
Sinai and stay with him forty days^, while the 
blind unbeliever laughs at the idea that God ever 
spoke to man. Now it seems to me that these ex- 



GOD AND RELIGION 85 

treine views are both wrong and that the truth lies 
in the middle. If God wants to speak to any man 
he need not invite him to go up into a mountain 
or to ascend into heaven. God has the best equip- 
ped wireless apparatus at his disposal, and he can 
communicate with man from any distance. And 
God does indeed speak to man, but in a code lan- 
guage, which can be understood only by him who 
has the key to it. And the key to the divine 
language can be obtained only by being in harmony 
wdth the divine thought. But sometimes we think 
we have the proper key and fall into error. We 
hear the divine word but misinterpret its meaning. 
This happened to the prophets of old who pro- 
phecied lies in the name of God. Most of them 
were not wilful liars, but were deceived deceivers. 
They misinterpreted the words of God. Such is 
also the case with many idolaters who are honest 
in their superstitious beliefs and practices. 

If we want to understand the divine language 
Ave must keep our minds in tune w^ith things divine, 
and must keep our thoughts pure from all evil and 
meanness. Thought is a most powerful factor in 
life. The importance of thought may best be seen 
from the fact that we find here and there a man 
who commits suicide. The love of life is very strong 
in every living being; even a fly loves to live and 



86 WHAT IS GOD? 

anxiouslj^ avoids all dangers of death. And yet, 
here is a man who voluntarily ends his own life for 
no other reason than that his thoughts have become 
so dreadful to him that he must get rid of them 
even at the cost of his life. In fact, man's worst 
enemies are sometimes his own thoughts. Even if 
he is successful in his fight against his outside 
enemies, against hostile Nature, against ferocious 
animals and fierce fellow beings, his victories avail 
nothing unless he keeps down the enemy within his 
own breast, the harrowing and evil thoughts which 
lure him to misery and destruction, and stop his 
ears from hearing the divine language. 

The spread of universal education and the 
growth of the spirit of brotherliness among men 
will do much to counteract and finally to subdue 
the dark powers of fanaticism and bigotry. For 
bigoted and bloodthirsty religious zealots are not 
unlike certain microbes which thrive best in dark 
and damp places, but are sure to be killed off as 
soon as they are exposed to the sunlight and fresh 
air. The piercing rays of reason will in due time 
exterminate those pestilential microbes which have 
been sapping the life blood of poor mankind during 
countless ages past. 

The sun, however, does not rise in his majestic 
splendor all at once. He first is seen on the moun- 



GOD AND RELIGION 87 

tain tops, and gradually sends down his golden 
rays on the valleys below. Let us, therefore, be 
tolerant and patiently wait for the time when re- 
ligion will no longer mean the observance of this 
or that ceremony, or the vain repetition of this or 
that creed, but when, as the prophet has it: ^^Tlie 
earth shall he -filled ivith the knoiDledge of the Lordy 
as the waters eover the seaJ^ 



88 WHAT IS GOD? 

GOD AND THE SOUL. 

The soul of man 
Eesembleth water: 
From Heaven it cometh, 
To Heaven it soareth, 
And then again 
To earth descendeth, 
Changing ever. 

— Goethe. 

All efforts to give an exact definition of the soul 
meet with the same difficulties that confront us 
when we try to define God. The soul, like God, was 
never seen by human eyes, yet its existence cannot 
be doubted by any reasonable man. In my boyhood 
days I used to recite the morning prayer w^here this 
passage occurs: "My God, the soul which thou 
hast given me is pure; thou hast created it; thou 
hast formed it ; thou hast breathed it into me, thou 
preservest it within me ; and thou wilt take it from 
me and return it to me in time to come." After 
many years of thought on the subject of the soul, 
I must confess, that I do not agree in all points 
with the statement concerning the soul made in 
that prayer. 

What is the soul? To my mind the soul is a 
part of God, a spark of the divine fire, a drop of 



GOD AND THE SOUL 89 

the eternal ocean. It is, therefore, immortal as is 
the source from which it comes. 

In the following pages I shall endeavor to pre- 
sent some of the reasons which have convinced me 
that "dust thou art and to dust thou returnest" 
only applies to the human body but not to the soul 
that inhabits the body. Perhaps some philosophers 
will smile at my simple arguments presented in 
plain language, but my soul shall be satisfied if I 
succeed in convincing only one of my fellowtravel- 
ers on life's journey of the great and inspiring truth 
of the immortality of the soul. 

As sure as I live so sure I am that I shall not 
die. Not that I expect to be translated like Enoch 
or to go up to heaven in a chariot of fire, like the 
prophet Elijah, or that science will succeed in dis- 
covering the Elixir of Life. I expect nothing of 
the kind. I rather think that some day I shall die 
in the old fashioned wav, and be as dead as a door- 
nail. They will put my body into the grave, covered 
perhaps with some flowers and tears, and it will be 
generally believed that I am dead. But I know that 
I shall never die. My body, the garment of my 
soul, will be worm-eaten, the house wherein my "I'' 
dwelt, will crumble to dust, but my real "I'', that 
which lives, thinks and feels within me will never 
die. 



90 WHAT IS GOD? 

There are several reasons which lead me to this 
firm conviction, and although each taken separately 
may not be of great convincing power, yet if joined 
together they furnish overwhelming evidence in 
favor of a life beyond the grave. 

Everybody must admit that the mind in man is 
more important than the body. You may remember 
Dr. Watson's famous reply to a critic who ridiculed 
him on account of the smallness of his stature: 

Were I as tall to reach the Pole, 
Or grasp the ocean with a span, 
I would be measured by my soul; 
The mind is the standard of the man. 

As a matter of fact, instead of saying man has 
a body that has a soul, we would say, Man has a 
soul that has a body, the soul being the paramount 
thing in the constitution of man. The real essence 
and substance of the soul is a mystery. 

We know only what it is not, and are safe in 
saying that it is not like any of the things which w^e 
can taste, smell or touch. How then can we say 
that the soul dies because we see everything around 
us dissolve and decay? The soul stands absolutely 
alone, and nothing that we see in the world can 
be compared with it. Hence the burden of proof 
is with those who deny the immortality of the soul, 



GOD AND THE SOUL 91 

and as long as there is no evidence to the contrary, 
we are justified in our assumption, that although 
all other things decay and die, the soul, being sui 
generis y is not subject to the laws observed in the 
material world, and lives on forever. 

But even in the material world about us nothing 
dies and nothing is lost. The indestructibility of 
matter is one of the main pillars upon which all 
physical science, especially that of chemistry, rests. 
Anv one can convince himself of the truth that mat- 
ter will disappear and yet not be really lost by this 
simple experiment. 

Suppose you fill a pail with water and allow it 
to stand for some time in the kitchen, you will find 
the water is gradually disappearing and after a 
while it will be entirely gone. Where did the water 
go to? Was it annihilated? Of course not. It 
simply assumed another form for the time being, 
and in due time it will return to the earth as water. 
Even so it is with our soul. The law of nature that 
nothing can be destroyed in the material world 
holds good also in the spiritual. It is only the dust 
that returns unto dust, but the spirit remains a 
spirit. Strictly speaking, even the body is not des- 
troyed altogether, for it changes into elements 
which in their turn contribute to sustain life on 
earth. 



92 WHAT IS GOD? 

Take another illustration. Here is an electric 
motor, working in the finest style. Of a sudden it 
stops. Who would think for a moment that the 
electric power has ceased to exist? We know well' 
enough that the trouble in only with the apparatus, 
and sure enough as soon as the apparatus is fixed, 
the electric force is at work again. So it is also 
with the body and the soul. The body grows old 
and shows signs of decay, but the motive power, the 
soul, does not grow old and never loses its vitality. 

Those who disbelieve in immortality are inclined 
to compare man with a locomotive, which is lively 
and active when in good condition, but when it 
breaks down, the steam escapes and it becomes stiff 
and dead. Granted for the sake of argument that 
the soul of man is like the steam which escapes 
from the locomotive, the question arises what be- 
comes of the steam? To say that it is lost would 
be a great mistake, for the steam only ceases to bfe 
steam, but is not annihilated. It condenses and 
assumes again the form it had before the heat ex- 
tended it. 

It is sheer nonsense to say that man is nothing 
more than a very sensitive and highly organized 
and intricate mechanical apparatus, and all his 
actions are performed in a way similar to that of 
a well-regulated watch. How foolish this mechanic- 



GOD AND THE SOUL 93 

al view of man is I Has the watch a soul? Has it 
a heart? Does it feel pain and pleasure? Does it 
love and hate? Does a watch propagate its kind 
and transmit its life to other watches? A watch is 
a dead thing even while it is performing its func- 
tions, but man, thinking and feeling man will be 
alive though he is apparently dead. 

There is a tendency in our sceptical age to deny 
the future life of the soul. Many a person takes 
for his motto : ^^Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow 
we die.'' I believe that is a great mistake. The 
Good Book says : ^^The spirit of man is the candle 
of the Lord." Prov., xx., 27. 

As the burning of the candle slowly but surely 
brings about the final extinction of the candle, so 
it is with the life of man. The very act of living 
brings him every day nearer to death, which must 
inevitably ensue as soon as the vital force has 
burned itself out. Before this happens many a man 
asks himself, "what will become of me after my life 
is extinguished, whither shall I go then?'' This 
question, however, is a foolish one and is no more 
justified than if the candle would ask, "where will 
I go after I cease to burn?" The real question is 
not as regards the future, but should be directed 
toward the past. Not "whither shall I go," but 
"whither did I go," while I was burning or liA^ng, 



94 WHAT IS GOD? 

would be the correct form of the question. Man is 
not dying at the end of his years, but he is rather 
dying every day of his life. His force of life is be- 
ing spent by every breath he exhales and by every 
motion he makes. Where does that force go? My 
answer is that as there is no force in the universe 
which can ever disappear altogether, so the vital 
force of man is never lost altogether. The sparks 
of life, which are burning in every human soul, do 
never become entirely extinct, but rather return to 
the great source of the Heavenly fire from which 
they have come. 

Furthermore, not only is there anything in the 
laws of nature which would militate against the 
idea of the immortality of the soul, but, cjntrary- 
wise. Nature herself furnishes us with a striking 
evidence for that great truth. I refer of course to 
the revival of Nature that takes place in the spring- 
time of every year. 

When the autumn leaves are falling and all na- 
ture prepares for winter's sleep, we grow sad, but 
doubt not for one moment that the coming winter 
will be followed by the spring season. We are 
pretty sure that nature will after the winter is gone 
wake up from her seeming slumber, and sky and 
streams, field and forest renew their joyous life. 
The flowers will bloom again and the birds will join 



GOD AND THE SOUL 95 

in the great hallelujah chorus. Why should there 
not be a springtime for the soul of man? 

One of the strongest arguments, however, for 
the continuance of the soul after death, I find in 
the existence of so much of pain and misery in this 
world. My sense of justice revolts against the 
thought that this is all there is in lifo for the mil- 
lions of my fellow-beings. All abjut us we see 
wrecked and wasted lives, we see so many people 
whose life is a constant grind and a weary tread- 
mill, and to whom not a ray of sunlight comes to 
light up their dark and dreary existence. It is im- 
possible that these unfortunate people were born 
into this world simply to suffer for a few years and 
then disappear forever. Can the ruler of this uni- 
verse be so cruel and unjust? Surely there must 
be another life where these poor creatures will have 
more pleasure and less pain, more joy and less 
grief, more of heaven and less of hell. 

It is very likely that the apparent injustice in 
human affairs suggested the idea of the transmigra- 
tion of the soul, an idea which took possession of 
inquiring minds of all ages and nations. The Greek 
philosopher Pythagoras made the transmigration 
of the soul an important part of his philosophic 
teachings. The Buddhistic philosophy is full of it, 
and in the Jewish Kabbalah it is spoken of as a 



96 WHAT IS GOD? 

real fact. At present the Theosophists are staunch 
advocates of that theory, which they call "The 
Reincarnation of the Soul." 

I am inclined to believe in the transmigration 
of the soul because by the help of this doctrine we 
are enabled to get some light on a subject which is 
almost as mysterious as death, namely, sleep. 

What becomes of us when we are sleeping? No- 
body knows yet the exact purpose and meaning of 
sleep and dreams. Sleep is an absolute necessity 
for every human being, and even the strongest man 
cannot live without it. Sleep is very similar to 
death, and if are unable to fathom the secret of 
dreams, we shall be still less able to lift the veil 
that covers the face of death. 

Is there any truth in dreams? I think there is. 
But since the truth is not clearly seen, and since 
there are many things in dreams that are false, it 
is thought advisable not to pay too much attention 
to dreams. How it is possible to see true things in 
dreams may be shown by this illustration. The 
captain of a ship would be helpless without a tele- 
scope by his side. Such a telescope is also to be 
found in Nature. She is an eye that sees very far, 
and without it it would be impossible for the 
planets to continue in their courses. There must 
be a far-seeing force which can foresee what will 



GOD AND THE SOUL 97 

happen after a time. The eye of man and his rea- 
son is a part of that great eye and great reason, 
both having the same source and origin. But on 
account of his body his eye and reason are not in 
close touch with the deity, and are unable to look 
into the future. But in sleep the influence of the 
body is weakened and the mind is allowed full sway 
so that it may come into more intimate relations 
with the great eye and reason, the divine forces, 
which are able to discern the future events. It is, 
therefore, quite possible for man to see in sleep 
things that are true. Dreams have a strong resem- 
blance to moving pictures. All the pictures shown 
on the screen must first be photographed. So it is 
also with our brain which reproduces pictures of 
things which have been first photographed on our 
brain cells. But how does it come that we often see 
in our dreams men and things which we have never 
seen in our waking state? This may be explained 
by the supposition that we see in our dreams men 
and things we have seen in a former existence. 
One soul descends from another soul, and the ex- 
periences of a soul that has lived many years ago 
are transmitted to its descendants. We find that 
a grandparent's yellow hair will reappear in one of 
his grandchildren. If physical traits are in this 
way inherited, why should it not be so with mental 



98 WHAT IS GOD? 

traits? I do not think that dreams are false. All 
we can say it that we do not understand them. It 
is as if a man would take up a thick volume of a 
book full of profound thoughts and pick out one 
page and then say that because he does not under- 
stand that one page there is no sense in the whole 
book. That one sentence may have a deep meaning 
when the page is read in connection with the pre- 
ceding and following pages. 

The reason why I think that our present exist- 
ence is connected w^ith our former existence is be- 
cause this alone affords an explanation of the ap- 
parent injustice in the world. Just as Nature's up- 
heavals, as for instance thunder storms and floods, 
are not without aim or purpose, so is also the dis- 
pensation of Providence not without justice, and 
those who suffer now are punished for misdeeds 
committed bv them in a former existence. I do not 
believe in a hell painted by religious fanatics as a 
place where the souls of the wicked are tormented 
with fire and brimstone, but I do believe that there 
is a hell on earth. If we see how many people suf- 
fer through all their life-time, how misfortune fol- 
low^s them in all their undertakings, how everything 
goes against them, we cannot but come to the con- 
clusion that there is a hell on this our beautiful 
earth. 



GOD AND THE SOUL 99 

The idea of reincarnation appeals to me more 
than the idea of a heaven and hell where the pious 
ones live in eternal idleness and luxury, while the 
wicked ones are all the time ^^in a stew.'' This 
world, according to the view of religionists, is of 
no value at all. It is merely a sort of recruiting 
station where the emissaries of God and the devil 
vie with each other to induce as many as they can 
to join their ranks. I think, however, that there 
is a great, though hidden, aim and purpose in the 
maintenance of human life on this earth. 

But while the doctrine of the transmigration of 
the soul is after all a matter of speculative philoso- 
phy, its underlying idea is true beyond any doubt. 
It is a mistake to think that our life begins when 
we are born and ends when we die. Such would 
be the case if man would come into this world with- 
out parents and leave it without offspring. But 
since man is the child of parents, his life began be- 
fore his birth and is only a continuance of his 
parents' life, and since man leaves children behind 
him, his life does not come to an end with the close 
of his own life, but is continued in the life of his 
children. There is no real break in human life, it 
goes on forever, just as the sun never ceases to 
shine, although we speak of sunrise and sunset. 
The life of each generation is linked with the life 



100 WHAT IS GOD? 

of the preceding and following generation, just as 
today is closely connected with yesterday and to- 
morrow. A simple illustration will make this point 
clear. The patriarch Jacob is said to have come 
to Egypt with his family consisting of seventy 
people. That was about 3500 years ago. His des- 
cendants number now nearly 15 millions. Can it be 
truly said that Jacob died in Egypt? Does he not 
live not only in the memory of the Jews, but also 
in the actual bodies and souls of his descendants? 
Human life is well pictured in Tennyson's Brook 
"Men may come, men may go, but I go on forever." 

The evolution theory, which in its essential 
points has been accepted by all philosophers of the 
present generation, may be also appealed to in favor 
of Reincarnation. All things develop and evolve 
from a lower to a higher state, from a simple to a 
more complex organism. Why should this not hold 
good of the soul, too? And where else but on this 
planet and among the environments of this life is 
there an opportunity for the soul to grow and to 
expand so as to be more in harmony with the great 
Soul of the Universe? 

As a stir-up thought — somewhat like a "stirrup 
cup" — let me quote the following lines, which ex- 
press the profound truth that, after all, the highest 
life is that which has for its aim the betterment 
and advancement of man life and thought : 



GOD AND THE SOUL 101 

"Live like the flower! 

So bud, so bloom, in growing beauty live; 
So sweeten life with the perfume that gentle 
actions give. 

"Die like the flower! 

So that when thou art gone, sweet, happy 

thoughts of thee, 
Like fragrant rose leaves may be strewn upon 
thy memory.'' 



102 WHAT IS GOD? 



CONCLUSION 

The reader who was kind enough to follow me 
in the foregoing chapters will, I hope, agree with 
me on these two points : 

First, that it is impossible to get a perfect un- 
derstanding of God, and second that it is neverthe- 
less our privilege and duty to try to find a solution 
for the problem of God. Blind fanaticism de- 
nounces every attempt to give a rational explana- 
tion of God. Like one of Job's comforters they 
say: ^^Canst thou find out the experience of God? 
or canst thou find the way unto the utmost limit 
of the Almighty?-' (Job. 11 :7). But this objection 
is as foolish as it would be to say that because 
geologists are unable to tell the exact age of the 
earth, therefore all their discoveries are to be dis- 
trusted. The Deity is eternal, without beginning 
and without end, and it stands to reason that the 
human mind being finite cannot fully comprehend 
the Infinite. 



MISCELLANEOUS AETICLES. 

( Note : Some of the following articles have been 
printed before in various newspapers, but I thought 
they might be deserving of a more enduring life in 
a book. ) 



CONTENTS 

1. Who Is To Be Blamed For The Present 
War? 

2. The Messiah Will Come. 

3. At My Mother's Grave. 

4. Peace At Home. 

5. New Year Thoughts. 

6. Children Not Snobs. 

7. My Dream. 

8. The Marvelous Fountain. 

9. Fanaticism Disappears Together With Con- 
fidence Between Man And Man. 

10. The Cloudless Summer Sun. 

11. Suicide. 

12. Man and The Watch. 

13. To My Critics. 

14. The Mother-in-Law. 

15. Aphorisms. 



104 



WHO IS TO BE BLAMED FOE THE 
PEESENT WAR? 

To fix the responsibility for the awful calamity 
which has befallen European civilization is not so 
easy a matter. Even if all the facts which led up 
to the declaration of war were clearly known it 
would be difficult to draw the right conclusion from 
them, because each party claims to be in the right 
and to fight for the highest ideals, while the other 
party is accused of being in the wrong. They 
mutually accuse each other of being responsible 
for the war. 

In my book, ^^Homespun Philosophy/^ I have a 
paragraph which is quite pertinent to the subject. 
Let me quote it : 

"It is human nature to think of oneself more 
highly than of another. Hence our own views are 
always considered the right ones, while those of 



[Note: — The following article was published in December 
1914 in a periodical of mine called *'Seed of Thought." 
Although many things have changed since that time, I think 
it will not be without interest to have it printed again, since 
my hope for universal peace is still cherished by all who 
love their fellowmen. Recent events in Russia have realized 
the hope expressed in this article that "the crowns will be 
taken from the despotic rulers."] 

105 



106 THE PRESENT WAR 

our neighbors are held to be wrong. This is the 
fruitful source of all the quarrels, wars and blood- 
shed. If men could forget their own selves while 
thinking, there would be more harmony and peace 
among them.'' 

In my humble opinion no particular individual 
or nation can be held responsible for bringing on 
the war. When a furious windstorm comes and 
causes destruction of life and property, can any- 
body be blamed for it? It is just as unjust and 
foolish to single out any one individual or nation 
as the originator of this awful European catas- 
trophe. 

Have you ever been caught in a storm while 
walking along the sea beach on a bright summer 
afternoon? 

The ocean is as smooth as a mirror. There is 
hardlv breeze enough to flutter vour handkerchief. 
But all of a sudden the blue sky is darkened by 
heavy clouds, the wind begins to blow, and soon 
the waves strike against the shore with tremendous 
noise and fury. What was it that caused this sud- 
den transformation of the landscape? There are, 
no doubt, natural causes for this change, but the 
change is, after all, a mystery of nature, which 
science will never succeed in clearing up. 



THE PRESENT WAR 107 

And as it is in nature, so it is also in the ag- 
gregate life of human beings, which constitute the 
various nations of the world. 

For a time everything goes on smoothly. Peace 
and concord reign supreme. The most friendly re- 
lations are established and maintained among the 
peoples of the various countries, and there is not a 
cloud to be observed on the political horizon. All 
of a sudden there comes a terrible storm. The 
passions of men for gold and glory are aroused, 
the weaves of racial and religious emotion run high, 
and in their fury they sw^allow up^ all the noble and 
humane thoughts of centuries of civilization. 

Brother-man fights against brother-man, and 
blood is flowing like water. 

Will war and bloodshed ever disappear from 
the face of the earth? My heart inspires me to 
hope so, but my reason denies the hope. True 
enough, poets and prophets have seen visions of 

a time when "thev shall beat their swords into 

t/ 

plowshares and their spears into pruninghooks/' 
but, alas ! real life is far from such poetic visions. 
Everywhere we find a struggle for existence. The 
big fish eat the small fish, and the lion devours the 
lamb. If the lion is to abandon his lamb-devouring 
activity how can he continue to exist? 

The perpetual struggle carried on among the 



108 THE PRESENT WAR 

lower grades of creatures, is bound to characterize 
the life of the highest creature-man. Advancing 
civilization will make war less cruel and less fre- 
quent, but it will not abolish it altogether. So 
far it seems that civilization has had the tendency 
to make the instruments of war more effective and 
destructive. The hope that the new inventions of 
death-dealing weapons will make war impossible 
has been rudely shattered by the present war. 

When we, therefore, inquire into the cause and 
origin of this present war we make a great mistake 
if we hold any one nation responsible for it. We 
must find its cause in some secret force of nature, 
a force which works in ways not understood by 
man. Against this force man is powerless. Can 
man stop the rain or silence the roaring of the 
windstorm? Even so would it have been impos- 
sible to oppose the secret force of nature which was 
driving the nations into war. 

But there is a silver lining to this black war- 
cloud, and there will come out of this disaster and 
calamity benefits and blessings. When the father 
of this country heroically fought his fight against 
English tyranny there was great suffering in the 
land. Many precious lives were lost in the battles, 
and many more were wounded and crippled for 
life. Widows and orphans were bemoaning their 



THE PRESENT WAR 109 

fate, and poverty and distress were keenly felt. But 
those sacrifices and sufferings were not in vain. 
They resulted in giving to millions of human beings 
the blessings of life, liberty and happiness. And 
so we have no doubt that out of this awful war 
and destruction there will come the blessings of 
prosperity and peace. The storm will clear the at- 
mosphere, and bright sunshine will dispel the dark- 
ness and misery. 

Of one thing we may be sure. The effect of the 
war will be the weakening and eventual collapse 
of the royal thrones in Europe. The crowns will 
be taken from the heads of the despotic rulers, and 
a new era of liberty and happiness will dawn in 
Europe and shed its bright light over all the world. 



THE MESSIAH WILL COME 

"Israel shall be helped by the Lord with an 
everlasting salvation : ye shall not be ashamed and 
not be confounded unto all eternity." (Isa. 45 :17.) 

The morning prayer of the devout Jew con- 
cludes with the recital of the creed, consisting of 
13 articles of faith, the twelfth of which reads as 
follows : "I believe with perfect faith in the com- 
ing of the Messiah, and, though he tarry, yet will 
I daily wait for his coming." 

As a boy I used to recite this article of faith; 
and now, after many years, I find myself still hop- 
ing and waiting for the coming of the Messiah, but 
not in the sense in which the word "Messiah" is 
used in the prayerbook. I can no longer believe 
that one man was or ever will be the Messiah of 
the whole world. That is too big a job for any one 
man to undertake and carry out successfully. I 
do, however, believe that there have been and there 
will be many Messiahs, and what is more, that 
every man ought to be his own Messiah. If that 
happens, then the world will be redeemed and the 
true Messiah will have come. 

But however much opinions may differ concern- 
ing what the Jewish prophets and poets meant 
when they spoke of the glory of the Messiah, there 

110 



THE MESSIAH WILL COME 111 

can be but one opinion as to the world's crying 
need of a Messiah, which need is particularly 
brought home to us when we consider the most un- 
fortunate condition of the Jewish people in their 
exile among the nations of the world. 

The Jew in exile is, alas, like a sheep which 
has strayed from the fold and is unable to find its 
way back home. Fatigued and exhausted from 
hunger and thirst, the forlorn sheep runs hither 
and thither, looking despairingly at the mute trees 
of the gloomy forest. Suddenly there appears be- 
fore its straining eyes a gleam of light in the dis- 
tance, the wretched sheep thinking that the light 
will be the means of guiding it to the lost home, 
takes new courage and, gathering together all the 
strength left in its weak and emaciated body, it 
runs joyfully to the spot, whence the light appear- 
ed. But alas ! the light was only a will-o'-the-wisp, 
and on its way to reach it the poor sheep runs into 
the maws of a hungry wolf. 

How true a picture this is of the Jew in exile ! 

For two thousand years the Jew has been an 
exile from his own country and a wanderer on the 
face of the earth. How often was he driven from 
one country to another and hunted down like a 
wild beast! Even when he was allowed to settle 
in a country, he was generally looked upon as a 



112 THE MESSIAH WILL COME 

stranger and treated with coldness and suspicion; 
the plainest human rights were often denied him, 
and his life and property were always at the mercy 
of a greedy potentate or bloodthirsty mob. Inno- 
cent Jewish blood has been shed in almost every 
part of the civilized world, and the persecution of 
the Jew has no parallel in all human history. 

And who were the perpetrators of those violent 
deeds against the Jews? Humanity must cover its 
face in shame and sorrow because of the awful fact 
that those who inflicted such inhuman cruelties 
upon the Jew had all the appearance of men and 
seemed to be fashioned after God's own image. 
What is more, they were his own brothers, born 
and raised in the same family, nurtured and cared 
for by the same mother. 

Who can fathom the grief and despair of the 
Jewish soul when brooding over his fate he asked 
himself : Why do these brothers of mine hate and 
persecute me? What have I done to excite their 
cruel and inhuman passions against me? 

Now and then it happened that the Jew, like 
the lost sheepj saw a gleam of light in the distance ; 
he would take new courage and hope and his heart 
would beat with joy over the expected rescue from 
his great peril and danger. At last, he would say to 
himself, the end of my suffering has come. But he 



THE MESSIAH WILL COME 113 

was disappointed again and again. The light he 
saw was a false light, the Messiah he hoped for was 
as far as ever. 

Weary and footsore the wandering Jew kept 
up his restless search for a resting place, and in 
his agony and despair we can hear him cry out: 
Oh God, how long, oh, how long wilt thou let me 
suffer? How much longer shall I be an outcast 
and an outlaw among the nations of the world? 
How^ canst thou, O merciful God, patiently look 
on while thy children are so mercilessly treated? 
Is it nothing to thee that we are accused of all 
kinds of misdeeds and even of ritual murder, for 
the sole reason that our accusers may find the op- 
portunity they seek of giving vent to their malice 
and hatred and inciting the brutish people to po- 
groms which result in outrageous crimes against 
the life and honor of helpless men, w^omen and 
children? When, oh, when will the Messiah come? 

Many and various are the propositions made to 
stop this cry of despair and bring peace and com- 
fort to the eternal wanderer. 

The most recent and most fascinating solution 
of the Jewish problem is that advocated by the 
Zionists, who claim that the only way to stop 
Jewish persecution is to establish a Jewish state 
in Palestine and thus end the long and dreary exile 



114 THE MESSIAH WILL COME 

of the Jew. To my mind, however, Zionism will 
not bring the longed-for relief for the persecuted 
Jew. Apart from all the great diflficiilties that 
would have to be overcome, there is this to be 
considered: Supposing all obstacles to have been 
removed and the Jewish state has been established, 
what guarantee is there that the Jewish state will 
be able to defend itself against the attacks of its 
enemies? 

In my opinion the Jewish state would only in- 
crease the danger to the safety and welfare of the 
Jewish people, since it would tell the bloodthirsty 
wolf where to find the hapless sheep. Instead of 
having isolated pogroms at long intervals there 
would be enacted a pogrom on a large scale, a 
wholesale massacre, such as mankind never wit- 
nessed before. No indeed! Zion will alw^ays be 
dear to the Jewish heart and a precious memory 
to his soul, but it can never become his home again. 

And why? Because the Jew cannot and must 
not separate himself from the rest of the world. 
He must remain among the nations of the world 
where an inscrutable providence has placed him 
for a great and noble purpose. And this purpose 
is nothing more nor less than to teach mankind the 
lesson of humanity, to bring light to those who sit 
in darkness, and to make the captives free. In 



THE MESSIAH WILL COME 115 

short, Israel's mission among the nations is to pre- 
pare the way for the Messianic time, so that every 
man may become his own Messiah. The emancipa- 
tion of man's serfdom from his enslavement by his 
Satanic nature will not be accomplished by a man 
descending from heaven, but will be brought about 
only then when man will have become heavenly. 

Why was Israel scattered over all the earth? 
It was because they were appointed by a divine 
Providence to be the teachers of mankind. Now, 
since it is their sacred mission to be the bearers 
of light and truth, they must remain there where 
they can best fulfill their high mission, and that is 
the places and countries where they are now. 

The words spoken by Moses concerning the law 
might be fitly applied to the Messiah. When Moses 
speaks of the law he says: ^'For the command- 
ment which I command thee this day, it is not too 
hard for thee neither is it too far ofi'. It is not 
in heaven, that thou shouldest say. Who shall go 
up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, and 
make us to hear it that we may do it? Neither is 
it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who 
shall go over the sea for us, and make us to hear 
it, that we may do it? But the word is very nigh 
unto thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou 
may est do it.'' (Deut. 30: 11-14.) 



116 THE MESSIAH WILL COME 

Yes, indeed, the Messiah will not come from 
heaven, nor will he come from over the sea. He 
is very near unto us, he is in our heart if we only 
do Messianic work. 

A similar view concerning Israel's mission is 
held by no less an authority than Mr. Claude Mon- 
tiflore in his famous book entitled ^^ Bible for Home 
Reading/^ 

Let me quote two brief passages from that book. 

"The ^Kingdom of priests' must exercise its 
priestly functions for the benefit of the world. The 
Jews are called for a special purpose; to them the 
Knowledge of God came early in their history. 

"In harmony with the highest teachings of th^ 
Bible about Israel is its highest teachings about 
the future. God wills that His world, the world of 
man, shall become better, not worse. With the op- 
timism of faith the Hebrew seers and poets look 
forward to a Golden Age ; they do not relegate it to 
a distant and irrecoverable past. Eighteousness 
and peace shall at last prevail." 

It seems to me, therefore, that the only salva- 
tion of the Jew lies in his courageous performance 
of his high duties to mankind. The Jew must go 
on teaching the fatherhood of God and the brother- 
hood of man. He must teach people to love each 
other, although he is hated and persecuted. He 



THE MESSIAH WILL COME 117 

must do his best to break down the barriers be- 
tween man and man, not only for the benefit of all 
humanity but also for his own benefit. For we 
may be sure of one thing, namely, that as long as 
there prevails the foolish hatred between the vari- 
ous races of the world, just so long will the Jew 
be hated. 

I say that racial hatred is foolish, nay more, 
it is a crime. But someone might say : Is it not a 
natural thing that we should love our own race 
more than that of any other? Is not "blood thick- 
er than water?" My reply is: Quite so. But the 
love for one's own race should never inspire hatred 
for another race. On the contrary, it should lead 
to love all men. He that loves only his own race is 
an egoist of the worst kind, and is generally an 
intolerant and narrow-minded man. A man whose 
heart does not beat for all humanity is a fanatic, 
and it is fanaticism and intolerance which retard 
the progress of humanity. 

But thanks be to God that the dark clouds of 
fanaticism are disappearing slowly but surely be- 
fore the light of civilization and progress. Even 
in darkest Eussia the light is getting to be stronger 
and more penetrating, as was so clearly shown in 
the recent Beilis trial, where the dark powers of 
superstition had to crouch back into their holes 



118 THE MESSIAH WILL COME 

because the whole civilized world was arrayed 
against them and would not tolerate the Russian 
bear to crush the poor, innocent victim to death. 
This Beilis case shows that after all truth is might- 
ier than falsehood, and it is a source of courage 
and hope for the Jew to go on in his work of 
spreading truth and light, despite all obstacles and 
stumbling blocks placed in his way. 

I believe the time is not far when the nations 
of the world will come to the Jew, as did Joseph's 
brethren, and ask his forgiveness for the wrongs 
they have inflicted upon him. And the Jew, like 
Joseph, will say: "Ye meant evil against me, but 
God meant it for good to bring to pass, as it is 
this day, to save much people alive.'' (Gen. 50 :20.) 

Yes, indeed, the sufferings of the Jew have been 
the cause of the "saving of many people," and 
only when the Jew will stick to his sacred mission 
in the world, all mankind will be saved from the 
terrible power of dark fanaticism. 

To sum up, then, the true Messiah is not to be 
expected to come from heaven, nor can we hope to 
meet him on going across the sea, as the Zionists 
dream. There is no personal Messiah. In the 
heart of every earnest, intelligent man there dwells 
the Messiah, which is the love of God and fellow 
man. And all of us may do something to spread 



THE MESSIAH WILL. COME 119 

the knowledge of that Messiah, and thus hasten 
the glorious time, when everj^ man will recognize 
in the face of every other man the image of God, 
and when all racial and religious hatred will be 
wiped off the face of the earth, and all-embracing, 
all-conquering Love will shine from every face. 

King David's words: ^^Behold how good and 
how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together 
in unity !" ring in my ears, and my eyes see in the 
far distance Jew and Gentile walking arm in arm 
in the sunlit path of Love. 



AT MY MOTHER'S GRAVE 

Dedicated to the Memory of My Mother 

Mrs. Rosie Cohen 

Who passed into the higher life 

October 18, 1912. Cheshvan 7, 5673. 

I decked her grave not with flowers but with 
tears that came from the heart which she had car- 
ried beneath her heart even before it beat, and 
which she had filled with emotions of love and 
veneration. 

When my guide in the "City of the Dead" stop- 
ped and, pointing to a little mound, softly said: 
"Here it is. Your mother's grave," I had to grasp 
his arm for support. My head began to swim and 
my feet to sink. But soon T regained my com- 
posure, and he withdrew, leaving me alone with 
my mother. With my mother? Alas! My mother 
was not there. This little grave could not hold my 
mother. If she were there she would surely rise 
to embrace me. No, no! She is not here. What 
they buried here were only her garments. But 
where art thou, oh mother dear? Why don't you 
answer to my calls of distress? Have you for- 
gotten me? Can a mother forget her child? 

Alas ! It must be true. My mother is gone and 

120 



AT MY MOTHER'S GRAVE 121 

I am by her grave bemoaning my loss. And oh! 
How great is my loss! 

I never before realized how much my mother 
was to me. The greatest blessings given to man 
are never fully appreciated by him until he loses 
them. We never know the full value of youth until 
we are getting old; we hardly appreciate the bles- 
sing of good health until sickness overtakes us; 
and nobody fully understands the meaning of li- 
berty until he is deprived of it. Even so did I not 
until now fully realize what my mother was to me. 
Oh, what a friend I had in her ! She was the truest 
and most faithful of friends. There was no flaw 
in her friendship. I could pour out to her my 
whole heart, holding back nothing. In my joys I 
would come to her and she doubled them; in pain 
and sorrow I would hasten to her and she relieved 
me by taking me to her heart and giving me aid 
and comfort. She was the sun of my life and the 
soul of my soul. 

Nevermore shall I look into her beautiful face, 
beautiful in spite of the wrinkles which care and 
anxiety for my welfare had imprinted there. Nev- 
ermore shall I behold the Shekina in her eyes 
as she said her prayers when lighting the Sabbath 
candles. Hushed forever is the voice that spoke so 
tenderly and gently to me. Oh, miserable man that 
I am, to have been bereft of such a mother ! 



122 AT MY MOTHER'S GRAVE 

I looked through the mist of tears at the little 
heap of ground before me and asked myself: "Is 
this cold and dark abode a fitting end for her life? 
Is this the reward for the good she has done, for 
the troubles and pains she has endured? Is it 
possible that a just God shall deal so unjustly 
Avith man? Can it be that all that is left of my 
beloved mother is her body mouldering in the 
grave? If so, what was the purpose of her life? 
Is it possible that we know nothing more of the 
aim and end of our life on earth except that we 
must die? And is there nothing more beyond death 
than the dark abode in the ground and the feeding 
of worms? My reason forbids me to accept this as 
true. And if my reason rebels against this, why, 
oh merciful Father, hast thou given me a mind 
which raises these questions and brings about con- 
fusion and tumult in my soul? If we perish like 
the beasts of the field would it not have been a 
thousand times better to have been also as they are 
Vv'ithout the inquiring mind and the eagerness to 
know the truth? 

And as I stood with bowed head and tearful 
eyes all alone in the midst of death I seemed to 
hear a voice, as did the great sufferer, Job, of old. 
And the voice said : "Know thou, son of man, that 
death has a high and holy purpose? It aims to 
teach you how to live. What does it profit a man 



AT MY MOTHER'S GRAVE 123 

to gain the whole world if he is sure to lose it 
again? What sense is there in accumulating wealth 
by the oppression of your fellowman? Why extort 
riches from the sweat of the poor and rise to 
honor on the backs of your neighbors? When you 
die you take nothing with you, and the great level- 
er of all ranks and distinctions humbles your 
pride to the dust. Know also, your mother is not 
dead. She lives. This little grave holds only the 
shell, the kernel is not here. She lives also in the 
good deeds she has done, in the noble thoughts 
and feelings she has inspired in others, and in the 
memory and affections of her relatives and friends.'' 

The voice ceased speaking and a wonderful calm 
and quiet came over me. I turned around and, as- 
suming that she could hear me, I said : ^^Oh, Moth- 
er dear, forgive your erring child his shortcomings. 
I was not always as I ought to have been. I have 
sometimes sinned against you by disregarding and 
disobeying your will. I have caused you lots of 
trouble and anxiety. But I know you have blotted 
out my sins from your memory, and your heart was 
too pure and holy to harbor a grudge against your 
child. To your loving and forgiving spirit I trust 
for mercy and forgiveness.'' 

The sun was declining behind the near hills and 
I turned to find the exit from the ^^House of Life" 



124 AT MY MOTHER'S GRAVE 

— the significant name by which the Jewish people 
designate a cemetery — when I noticed, a little dis- 
tance away, an open grave around which stood a 
group of weeping children of tender age. The 
tears came again to my eyes and I said half-murm- 
uringly: '^Oh God of Mercy, where is thy mercy? 
How canst thou suffer so much misery in this 
world? Why this painful wrenching of hearts 
through death? Art Thou deaf to the cries of the 
widows and orphans? Why was man condemned 
to live in this vale of tears? Why are thy children 
floundering about in this restless sea of trouble 
pursued by overwhelming waves of misfortune and 
misery? What is the meaning of all the suffering 
in this world?" 

And again I seemed to hear a voice saying: 
^'God is our loving Father and we must trust 
Him to do what is best for us. A little child can- 
not understand why his father will at times yield 
to all his wishes and at other times deny him his 
desires, and even inflict punishment upon him. 
Our Father gives us life and takes it awav but it 
is all done in love for his children. And when the 
earthly life ceases the heavenly begins. Death is 
only a vestibule to the higher life, a homecoming 
of the soul, a reunion of the child with his Heaven- 
ly Father.'' 



PEACE AT HOME 

The basis and foundation of a happy home is 
peace and harmony between husband and wife. A 
home may be situated in the finest part of the city, 
and furnished in the most lavish style, and yet be 
the most wretched place to live in, if there is 
lacking the one thing which makes home a real 
home, and that is, the peaceful and harmonious 
living together of husband and wife. Without this, 
no true home life is possible, and no true happiness 
is obtainable. 

Unfortunately there is many a home without 
happiness, because the angel of peace does not 
dwell there. 

How foolish so many of our fellow-beings are! 

Banishing the dove of peace from their homes 
and living a cat-and-dog life, they make home, 
which ought to be a place of heaven, a place of 
hell ! 

What is it that makes them act so foolishly and 
how can they be cured of their folly? 

125 



126 PEACE AT HOME 

The main source of quarrels between married 
couples is the extreme selfishness which rules the 
average human being, and guides him in all his 
thoughts and actions. A great many people marry, 
not because they love each other, but because they 
love themselves^ and hope that by marriage they 
will benefit themselves. True love marriages, the 
result of love and devotion for one another, are 
few and far between. By most people marriage is 
looked upon as a partnership in a business enter- 
prise, which is entered upon only because each 
partner needs the help of the other and expects to 
do better in business with than without a partner. 

Now, if a couple marries with the only object 
in view of bettering their own condition in life, 
they may not be inspired by the highest standards 
of life, but they can hardly be called foolish. They 
rather act wisely in considering their own inter- 
ests and looking out for their own benefit in life. 
Where their foolishness comes in is that, after be- 
ing married, they display so much selfishness, that 
their self-interest suffers and the object of their 
marriage is defeated. For at the bottom of all 
quarrels between husband and wife is the blind, 
unyielding love of self, which, bent upon satisfy- 
ing its own desires, tramples upon the feelings of 



PEACE AT HOME 127 

others and destroys ruthlessly everything oppos- 
sing it. 

Take, for instance, the money question, the 
most fruitful source of all domestic unhappiness. 
The husband often is so liberal in gratifying his 
personal tastes in matters of drinking and smoking 
that he acts stingily when the wife wants a new 
dress, or the wife is so lavish in her expenditures 
for dresses that she allows the grocer's bills to go 
uni^aid. In either case happiness is destroyed by 
the desire in finding happiness at the expense of 
each other. 

In other cases, where the money question plays 
no part, it will be found that it is always selfish- 
ness carried to excess which disturbs the peace of 
the home. Where husband and wife are only look- 
ing out for their own individual comfort and hap- 
piness there must be discomfort and unhappiness. 
It is only by yielding a part of our personal de- 
sires and appetites that we can obtain the full 
measure of happiness to be found in married life. 

Marriage is often spoken of as a partnership 
for life, but it is a partnership which differs in 
one important element from that of a commercial 
partnership, inasmuch as the marriage partnership 
is added to by the fruits of the marriage, which 
forms a new, unknown factor with an immense 



128 PEACE AT HOME 

influence upon the fate of the contracting parties. 

In biblical times children were considered the 
greatest blessings on earth, and the more of them, 
the better. In our modern time we are rather in- 
clined to think of quality than of quantity. The 
more so, because a modern child is hardly satisfied 
to be a ^^silenf partner, but rather plays in the 
household, a much more important part than was 
assigned to it in ancient times, especially to one 
of the female sex. 

Now, it happens that the arrival of this new 
factor in the marriage partnership opens up a 
new source for domestic dissensions and discord. 
Even before the child receives its name, the parents 
have many a warm discussion. And who has fail- 
ed to notice the harsh words that often are ex- 
changed betw^een husband and wife on the questions 
of how properly to attend to the thousand and one 
things touching the life of a little child? 

But while such squabbles are easily adjusted 
and leave no bitter sting, arising as they do from 
the pure fountain of parental love, the peace of 
many a home is disturbed and darkened by the 
half-grown or grown up child, w hich often becomes 
the storm centre of the household, and the dis- 
turber of the peace and happiness of the home. At 
wedding banquets one is sure to hear a telegram 



PEACE AT HOME 129 

which reads : ^^May your greatest troubles be little 
ones.'' This ancient joke expresses, however, a 
very sad fact. The little members of a household 
are often like "the little foxes'' of which the Bible 
says that they "spoil the vineyard." Too much 
anxiety for their present ^and future happiness 
makes the parents neglectful of the duty they owe 
to each other of filling the home with the bright 
rays of a glorious summerday. 

But after all, the only way of establishing peace 
and harmony in the home, is for husband and wife 
to consider their relations to each other not merely 
as a partnership which may be dissolved at pleas- 
ure, but as a union of hearts that is bound to last 
and to survive even death. For it is a union which 
lives on in the children and children's children. A 
true appreciation of this solemn fact would be very 
helpful in driving away the threatening clouds 
hovering over the home and in smoothing out the 
rough places in the voyage of married life. The 
motto which inspired the fathers of this country 
"United we stand, divided we fall," should be in- 
scribed on the walls of every home, and in the 
hearts of every husband and wife. 



NEW YEAR THOUGHTS 

Time is eternal; it has neither beginning nor end. 
Man, however, having only a measured time, 
ought to value it highly. 

Is New Year's day a day for worldly pleasures 
and amusements? Shall we celebrate it by eating, 
drinking and being merry? Not, if we seriously 
consider the true meaning of New Year's day. 

To the thoughtful mind New Yearns day has a 
very serious aspect. It marks a new station in 
life's journey, and calls for an accounting between 
the material and spiritual part of our nature. 

New Year's day, first of all, brings home to us 
the sad truth that ^^all is vanity," all things pass 
away as a shadow and as a cloud in the sky. All 
our possessions, all our achievements are at the 
mercy of our relentless cruel enemy — death. Yes, 
wherever we turn we are facing death. When the 
morning breaks, the night dies; the life of the 
springtime proclaims winter's death, and the birth 
of a new year is preceded by the death of the old, 
Alas! There is no life without death. 

This sad truth would overwhelm us and unfit 
us for our daily tasks, were we to keep it always 
before our minds. Who would care to strive and 
toil for something that is doomed to destruction? 

130 



NEW YEAR THOUGHTS 131 

What's the use of sowing, if the harvest is swallow- 
ed up by death? Why build houses and rear fami- 
lies if the Great Destroyer is sure to come and 
demolish them? 

Wise nature has therefore endowed man with 
the faculty of forgetting his ultimate doom. She 
has ordained that man should live and act as if 
there were no death. 

But while it is well for us not to indulge too 
much in the melancholy reflections on our mor- 
tality, it would be foolish and harmful to live al- 
together without giving any thought to that solemn 
truth. There are and ought to be moments in life 
when we fully realize that "all is vanity.'' 

There can be no better time for such a realiza- 
tion than New Year's day. Its arrival should make 
us pause and take an inventory of our business 
in life. How do we stand? How is the balance 
between the earthly and heavenly side of the led- 
ger? Are we solvent? Have we not strayed from 
the right path and become bankrupt in body, soul, 
and spirit? 

The deep meaning which thus attaches to New 
Year's day can be, however, best brought out, if 
we make our birthday the real New Year's day. Of 
course, according to our oflflcial calendar the year 
1916 will begin Saturday, while the Jewish calen- 



132 NEW YEAR THOUGHTS 

dar placed the beginning of the year 5676 on Thurs- 
day, Sept. 8, and the calendar in Russia, behind 
time in this as in everything else, makes the year 
1916 begin 12 days later than the rest of Europe. 
The Mohammedans, again, have another calendar. 

But the officially recognized New Year's day is 
not, strictly speaking, our New Year's day as in- 
dividuals. The real New Year's day for each of 
us is the anniversary of our birth. It is the day 
when we first saw the light, and it is the recur- 
rence of that day which to every one of us is a 
New Year's day. 

Considered in this light, the usual way of cele- 
brating one's birthday is all wrong and contrary 
to the true spirit of the occasion. Birthday parties 
with their sumptuous dinners and merry dances 
are the expression of the sentiment of those who, 
according to the prophet of old carelessly say: 
"Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow 
we die." 

The true sentiment which should inspire the 
celebration of one's birthday, the beginning of a 
new year, are those of solemn awe and reflection. 
For as we are standing on the threshold of a new 
year we are solemnly reminded that with the year 
that has passed a part of our life on this earth 
has passed away, and we have come nearer to "that 
bourne from which no traveler returned." 



NEW YEAR THOUGHTS 133 

And what will the incoming year bring to us? 
We are standing before the urn of time wherein 
our destiny is recorded. What will our lot be? 
Will it be life or death ; happiness or misery ; riches 
or poverty? 

In the midst of such uncertainty of fate, let me 
ask you : Is it wise or proper to indulge in hilar- 
ious gratifications of our lower appetites, in luxur- 
ious dinners and dances? 

It certainly is not. 

The wise and proper way of observing the an- 
niversary of our birthday, our real New Year's day, 
it seems to me, is to devote it to solemn meditation 
and searchings of the heart. It is a day, which 
more than any other day, reminds us of our mor- 
tality. Therefore it should set us to thinking seri- 
ously of the best ways and means for improving 
our moral and spiritual condition, and should spur 
us on to greater efforts in behalf of our heavenly 
guest that sojourns with our mortal body, the soul 
of man, that came from heaven, and the earthly 
journey ended, will return to it. 

Some of my strictly religious friends might per- 
haps be surprised to find that I do not mention 
prayer as a part of the observance of New Year's 
day. My reason for the omission is, because prayer 
has been so often misunderstood. Some religious 



134 NEW YEAR THOUGHTS 

fanatics have an idea that by prajdng and shedding 
tears, all their sins will be forgiven and they can 
go on sinning again. There are some who do not 
feel quite certain that God cares much for the 
tears shed by man. If he did, why does he deprive 
a mother of her only child, or children of their 
dearly beloved mother? 

Yet, they are grossly mistaken who think that 
this is a world ruled by blind chance, and that there 
is no Supreme Ruler and Governor of the Uni- 
verse. Especially since the outbreak of this terrible 
European war, there are not a few who have been 
asking the question : How can a merciful God per- 
mit such awful slaughter to go on? 

Now, while it is hard to give a satisfactory an- 
swer to this puzzling question, it is not so hard to 
see even in this great calamity which has befallen 
mankind the fingerprints of a Supreme Power that 
exacts just retribution for crimes committed. 

Out of the darkness of destruction and despair 
in Europe, a new day of peace and liberty will 
dawn upon the world. The thunder and lightning 
will be succeeded by the still small voice in the 
heart of humanity, the voice which speaks of hea- 
ven on earth and good will to all men. 



CHILDKEN NOT SNOBS 

Grownups are the natural teachers and in- 
structors of the little ones. But it would be ex- 
ceedingly beneficial for us if the role would be 
occasionally reversed and the little children be- 
come our teachers. How greatly, for instance, 
would our social intercourse be benefited if we 
would follow the example set by our young child- 
ren. Did you ever observe how easily a child will 
accommodate itself to its social surroundings? 
When two children meet, even though for the first 
time, there is at once a bond of fellowship estab- 
lished and they will play together like old friends. 
And why? Because the pure mind of the child 
knows nothing of pride and aristocratic feeling. 
Every child is received with open arms, whether 
its parents are rich or poor, of this or that nation- 
ality. Nor do these innocent little children prac- 
tise the deception used by the grownup, who often 
will heartily shake the hand of a supposed friend, 
and say, "I am so glad to see you!'' while in his 
heart he consigns him to a pla^e hotter than the 
tropics. 

Moreover, little children are not vindictive and 
bear no malice and harbor no grudge against each 
other. They will, of course, at times quarrel and 

135 



136 CHILDREN NOT SNOBS 

fight with each other, but they soon make up and 
can soon be seen again at play in the most friendly 
and affectionate manner. 

But, alas, the pure and genuine friendship of 
childhood days is short lived. As the child grows 
older he grows more and more in this respect also 
like his double faced and hypocritical elders. His 
love for his companions grows colder and more dis- 
criminating. He begins to be more particular about 
his playmates, refuses to play with this fellow and 
then with that fellow, if they happen to wear in- 
ferior dress or if their parents are of a lower sta- 
tion in life, and he begins to think that he was 
foolish ever to have associated with children of 
that class. In a word, he no longer feels free and 
easy in the society of other children unless they are 
just of his class, and the result is occasional soli- 
tude and loneliness. 

If we inquire into the sources of the happiness 
of childhood we find that it has its mainspring in 
the ignorance of the world and its ways. As soon 
as the child becomes conscious of the fact that it 
will not do to make friends with everybody its hap- 
piness suffers. This being so, it might well be asked 
what advantage is there in knowing the world, 
since such knowledge is the cause of so much 
misery and distress. Would we not be better off 
without knowledge and understanding? 



CHILDREN NOT SNOBS 137 

The knowledge of the world originates falsehood 
and causes us to be double faced, to flatter those 
whom we hate and despise, to say things we do not 
mean, to deceive others and be in turn deceived by 
them. Why should we then strive after such a 
cursed gift? It would be a thousand times better 
to retain the innocence of childhood and to remain 
ignorant of the dark and vile ways of life than to 
be forced to indulge in lies and flatteries so com- 
mon in our social life. Yes, indeed, better, far 
better to turn one's back upon the whole social 
world and live a free and independent life, telling 
no lies and flattering nobody, without regard to 
the ridicule and hatred which society heaps upon 
the head of one who dares to be free. Unfortunate- 
ly one man slavishly apes the other, so that it is 
almost impossible to find a true hearted, outspoken 
man, because society will not tolerate such a one. 

When, oh when will human reason and under- 
standing no longer be a hindrance and a stumbling 
block to man's happiness and liberty? Let us hope 
and work for a state of society where pride of an- 
cestry or wealth v/ill be banished, when the art of 
true living will be generally known and practised, 
when there will be no falsehoods and deceits, but 
when the ways of innocent and confiding childhood 
will be followed and faithfully kept by all men and 
women, and the true brotherhood of man will be 
firmly established on earth. 



MY DREAM. 

/^The true poet dreams being awake. He is 
not possessed by his subject^ but has dominion 
over it. In the groves of Eden he walks fa- 
miliar as in his native paths. He ascends the 
empyrean heaven, and is not intoxicated. He 
treads the burning marl without dismay; he 
wins his fights without self-loss through realms 
^of chaos and old night. ^ ^^ 

— Lamb, Last Essays of Elia. 
I dreamt a dream and methinks that I am wand- 
ering through a beautiful garden, full of luxuriant 
growth, mighty trees rearing heavenward, perfum- 
ed flowers, singing brooks, twittering birds and a 
golden sunshine suffusing all and it seemed as if 
all nature were attuned to God. 

This garden is surely the Garden of Eden where 
Adam and Eve dwelt, ere God sent them forth from 
the Garden. 

With wondering eyes and gladsome heart I 
viewed all and on and on I walked until there met 
my gaze a mass of people marching onward. Arm 
linked in arm and hand grasping hand they march- 
ed. Their eyes sparkled and their faces were aglow 
w^ith a holy enthusiasm. They called unto me and 
bade me enter their ranks. And I willingly fol- 
lowed them for it was brother calling to brother. 

138 



MY DREAM 139 

And on we marched and onward we went until 
we reached the banks of a great river w^here lay 
anchored mighty battleships, destructive men of 
war ready to deal out death and devastation. 

And they entered boats which carried them to 
these engines of war and seizing axes and crow- 
bars they made useless the cannons and the guns 
so that death should no longer lurk in them. 

Turrets and conning towers, powder and shell 
fell before them and the dawn of a new era began. 

It was as if the words of Isaiah, the great 
Prophet, had come true : ^^Nation shall not lift up 
sword against nation, and they shall not learn any 
more war." 

In wonderment and astonishment I looked on 
and finally I asked : "What people are you, what 
nation do you belong to?'' And the answer was: 
"There is no nation ; we are all one.'' Have we not 
all one Father? Hath not one God created us? I 
enquired no more. 

They returned to the shore and again forming 
in lines they marched on until they reached an open 
space where stood a magnificent Temple. The 
golden doors stood wide open, bidding all to enter 
and across its portals was inscribed in flaming 
letters: "My House shall be called the House of 
Prayer for all Nations." 



140 MY DREAM 

With youthful steps the masses entered and 
forming one mighty band of brotherhood they sang 
to the Father of All. 

And ^^the Lord dwells in Heaven and is glad.'' 
It seemed to me as if God descended from his 
High Place and came down into the midst of this 
people. A great light flooded the Temple and God 
dwelt among man on the day he became a true man. 
I awoke and behold it was but a dream. But 
dreams come true and visions are realized and so 
I ask myself : "Will the day ever come when force 
and strife and war and struggle for selfishness will 
be no more ; when no man will have reason to say : 
"I have shot mine arrow o'er the house, and hurt 
my brother?" 

A dream and yet to be realized if we would but 
remember : 

"O dream not, midst this worldly strife, 
An idle art the poet brings : 
Let high Philosophy control 
And sages calm the stream of life, 
'Tis he refines its fountain springs. 
The nobler passions of the soul." 



THE MARVELOUS FOUNTAIN. 

^^The heart like God is a Unity /^ 
The human heart — how immeasurable are its 
ways, and how vain all efforts to sound its depths ! 
Mount McKinley has been measured, the bottom of 
the ocean has been sounded, but the human heart 
defies all mathematical calculations. The most 
open-hearted man has some dark recesses in his 
heart which no eyes of another human being ever 
sees, and which he himself is unable thoroughly to 
explore. For not only can we ever fully know what 
is going on in the heart of our fellow beings, we 
do not understand even our own heart and are 
often moved to act in a way which surprises our- 
selves. 

Who can fathom the depth of a mother's love 
for the child, or a patriot's love for his country? 
Who can measure the amount of evil passions in 
the heart which result in lying, theft and murder? 
Eockefeller and other philanthropists are establish- 
ing institutes for scientific research into special 
diseases of the body. But there is no scientific re- 
search of the heart possible. And why? Because 
the heart of man cannot be put on the laboratory 
table, its secret springs cannot be uncovered, its 
mode of action cannot be laid bare. How varied 
are the contents of that wonderful fountain ! Love 

141 



]42 THE MARVELOUS FOUNTAIN 

and hatred, honey and poison, joy and sorrow, 
smiles and tears, hope and despair, are all denizens 
of the human heart and intermingle with each 
other. God alone, the searcher of all hearts, knows 
the secret springs of that wonderful fountain — the 
human heart. 



FANATICISM DISAPPEARS TOGETHER 

WITH CONFIDENCE BETWEEN 

MAN AND MAN. 

^^By education a person is exalted to a god; 
hy education he is converted to a devil; hy edu- 
cation he is degraded to a hrnte.^^ 

— Savage. 
The more educated mankind becomes, the more 
enlightened it grows, and the more fanaticism and 
idolatry are disappearing and the belief in God 
grows more and more beautiful and idealistic. The 
floods of light streaming into the world dispel the 
clouds of dark superstition, and fanaticism is grow- 
ing weaker and weaker every day. 

At the present time there is hardly any civilized 
country in the world where the inhabitants bow 
down to stone images. 

But with the disappearance of idolatry there 
disappears also the mutual confidence among men. 
In former times a man could easily know who is 
his enemy, because people were not so adept in the 
art of pretending and masquerading practiced now- 
adays. The unpolished and uncouth manners left 
no doubt about who is a friend or an enemy. 
But to-day there are schools organized for the very 

143 



144 DISAPPEARANCE OF FANATICISM 

purpose of teaching how to simulate, and one must 
be very clever and a good psychologist to discover 
the meanness and falsehood which is behind the 
sweet words and polished manners. 

While it certainly is a blessing to humanity that 
the light of education drives out the black clouds 
of fanaticism and idolatry, it is much to be deplored 
that under the mask of civilized and refined man- 
ners there is hidden so much of falsehood and cor- 
ruption. For woe is to the man who loses his faith 
and confidence in his f ellowbeings ! 



^THE CLOUDLESS SUMMER SUN." 

^^How far that little candle throws his beams! 
80 shines a good deed in a naughty worldJ^ 

— Shakespeare. 

The meeting with a good man is to me as the 
breaking of the sun through the dense forest, show- 
ing the pathway to the erring wanderer. 

When I look at the raging sea of life in which 
man tosses up and down as the angry waves of the 
stormy ocean, every man, impelled by his own 
selfishness, thinking but of himself. 

When I behold man, urged by his egoism to com- 
mit any deed no matter how small, how petty that 
it may cause harm and injury to his fellow-man 
my belief in humanity is shattered and I see but 
before me charlatans and fakers and it seems to me 
as if the world were full of wickedness. 

My faith in humanity and the goodness of man 
is destroyed. 

When I behold the almighty dollar turning 
pulsating hearts into steel when called upon to be 
helpful. 

When I see how few people think of anything 
nobler, anything higher and more ideal, failing to 
strive after the good in life, sadness overtakes me 
and I ask myself: "Where am I? Among whom 
am I?" 

145 



146 THE CLOUDLESS SUMMER SUN 

And the answer, the only answer comes: ^^Among 
men who are wild, begrudging each other's life, 
seeking each other's destruction." 

I grow pessimistic, the iron enters my soul and 
I am filled with unspeakable hatred toward the 
whole of mankind. 

But just as the sun comes as a savior to the 
despairing wanderer in the dark, dismal forest, so 
my hatred, my dismay, my wretchedness disappears 
when I meet a good man. And there comes to me 
the thought of Burns, who sang so beautifully: 
^^What is life when wanting love? 
Night without a morning : 
Love's the cloudless summer sun, 
Nature gay adorning." 



SUICIDE. 

Why it is more frequent among the rich 
than among the poor. 

The records show that the suicide rate among 
the rich is higher than among the poor. How shall 
we account for this curious social phenomenon? 

My answer is that it is the all powerful force 
of habit, which, ruling, as it does, the minds of all 
men, produces also the observed difference in the 
suicide rate between the rich and the poor. 

You may have heard of the fortune teller who 
said to the visitor: "I see from the lines of your 
palm that there are before you two years of poverty 
and distress.'' "And after that,'' came the anxious 
inquiry, "what will be my lot?" "After the two 
years of poverty," she answered solemnly, "your 
misery will have ended. You'll be used to it." 
Having got used to his poverty the poor man is by 
no means as miserable as those imagine him to be 
who have never been poor themselves. Even as early 
as the time of the Talmud they had a proverb : "A 
poor man is as good as dead." But it's a matter 
of fact that he does not feel his condition so keenly, 
because he gets used to it. He is an optimist by 
experience and habit, and his patience and long 
suffering never desert him. He laughs at fate and 

147 



148 SUICIDE 

dares it to do its worst, but he shrinks from taking 
fate in his own hand. 

Different is the case with the rich man. His 
habits all tend to make him impatient of any in- 
terference with his will or plans. He is used to 
having his own way everywhere. Small wonder 
that he gets rattled and upset when suddenly a 
situation arises which reveals his weakness or 
threatens him with ruin and poverty. Having failed 
to learn the lesson of patient endurance amid suf- 
fering, he yields to the insane impulse of self-de- 
struction. 

A proof of the correctness of my explanation is 
the fact that in almost every instance of the suicide 
of a rich man or woman, the victim is one who was 
born with a silver spoon in his mouth. A man who 
by his own energy amasses a fortune is not the kind 
of man who will commit suicide. Such a man is 
used to hard knocks and can stand some batterings 
of fate. But the man who was born in wealthy 
surroundings and has never known what it means 
to work for a living is the one who is apt to fall a 
victim to despair. 



MAN AND THE WATCH. 

If the dog is spoken of as "the faithful friend 
of man," a watch may be called so with no less ap- 
propriateness. For is not the watch the bosom- 
friend of man, especially when worn after the 
ladies' fashion? We cannot get along without the 
watch. It is our constant companion through life, 
and we take it along and consult it on all occasions. 
We often look into the face and feel the pulse of 
our friend. If its pulse has stopped we are a little 
frightened, as if we were reminded of the fate that 
will be ours some day. 

So used has man become to this friend that he 
regulates his whole life by his dictates. If he wakes 
up in the morning the first thing he does is to con- 
sult his watch. Sometimes it assures him that "all 
is welF' and the day is still young. At other times 
it commands him to be up and doing, for life is 
short. When the doctor approaches a sick-bed the 
first thing he does is to consult his watch to com- 
pare its ticking with the beating of the heart. And 
how very similar are the two ! Tick-tack tick-tack, 
goes the heart and the watch. The tick is put to 
death by the tack, which in turn is swallow^ed up by 
the next tick. 

In the course of time the tick-tacks of the watch 
are becoming irregular and finally cease altogether. 
Then we part company with the watch, however 

149 



150 MAN AND THE WATCH 

faithful it may have served us for years. It is no 
longer useful to us and we care no longer for it. 
How very human-like this last fate of the watch 
turns out to be ! When a human being fails to tick- 
tack he is also pushed aside and relegated to the 
junk-heap made up of old and decrepit humanity. 



TO MY CRITICS. 

The higher a stone is thrown into the air the 
deeper it will sink into the ground when it falls. 
Barking at others is a poor way of displaying one's 
vocal powers, and throwing mud at other people 
does not make one clean. 

There is a good and a bad way of criticising our 
fellow-beings. If criticism is intended to point out 
the weak spots and to show wherein improvements 
can be made, then it is just and beneficial. But 
there is a great deal of criticism that has no such 
high motives; it is born of envy and malice; it seeks 
to tear dowm, not to build up, to hinder, not to 
help. 

Such a low and mean kind of criticism I have 
experienced in the past few years. I was told, for 
instance, that I had no right to write philosophy 
because I have never studied philosophy in any col- 
lege or university. This criticism is, of course, un- 
justified, for some of the greatest philosophers of 
the w^orld have been men who never received a 
diploma as Doctor of Philosophy, and have never 
attended any school for higher education. 

Some time ago I was asked by a man who thinks 
he knows a great deal, why I took the trouble to 
publish a book, there being already so many books 

151 



152 TO MY CRITICS 

in the world. This question is just as foolish as it 
would be to ask a man why he got married, since 
there are already so many millions of people in this 
world. But the man who wants to get married is 
not kept back by the fact that the country is al- 
ready well populated. He is bound to satisfy his 
own desires and inclinations. And so when I am 
writing, I am simply following the demands of my 
nature which urges me on to communicate my 
thoughts to my fellows. 

I must confess, though, that had I found that 
nobody cares to read what I am writing, I would 
have stopped short and thrown away my pen. But 
I was fortunate enough to be encouraged to write 
by the fact that men in all walks of life, professors 
in colleges, lawyers, and editors of papers and 
magazines have written to me letters which show 
that I have been able to interest them in my writ- 
ings, although I am not the proud possessor of a 
"Doctor'' title. 

This big w^orld of ours is like the little busy bee. 
It has its honey and its sting. For the sting of 
ungenerous and foolish critics I am amply compen- 
sated by the honey of generous and wise men who 
encouraged me in my humble efforts to express my 
thoughts in writing. 



THE MOTHER-IN-LAW. 

The most ancient jokes are those concerning the 
mother-in-law. Adam was probably the only man 
Avho never heard of one of that kind. I say probably, 
because, for all we know, his sons-in-law might have 
cracked jokes about Mother Eve. And yet the 
mother-in-law is by no means a joke. She is often 
a serious menace to the peace and happiness of a 
young married couple and many a home has been 
wrecked by her presence. The only way to counter- 
act her evil influence is, in my opinion, that pre- 
scribed in the good old Book, which tells us: 
"Therefore doth a man leave his father and his 
mother, and cleave unto his wife (Genesis ii. 24)." 

Does the Bible approve of neglecting one's par- 
ents? Not at all. It means simply this: If a 
meddling mother is nagging her son about his wife 
in whom she finds nothing to commend and every- 
thing to condemn, the son should rise in his man- 
hood and "cleave unto his wife.'' The best mother- 
in-law is an absent mother-in-law. Occasional visits 
are all right, but they must be visits, not visit- 
ations. 

153 



APHOEISMS. 

Young man, take a lesson from the tree. While 
the tree is young, it strikes its roots deep in the 
soil so as to be able to draw life and sustenance 
in the years to come. He that wastes his time and 
talents in youth grows prematurely old and stores 
up for himself nothing but sorrow and trouble. 



The world appears sometimes to be like an in- 
sane asylum the inmates of which believe them- 
selves to be the doctors who are sent there to cure 
the others. 



A wise mother is not satisfied with teaching her 
child how to talk, but she will also teach him how 
to keep silent. 



FRIENDSHIP AND ENMITY. 
A friendly disposition makes friends. 



When a man's fortune declines he loses his 
friends, but his enemies remain. 



If we were as ready to find excuses for the faults 
of others as we are for our own faults, we would 
surely have more friends and fewer enemies. 

154 



APHORISMS 155 

No wonder that a man has more enemies than 
friends. To make friends costs money, while an 
enemy we can get for nothing. 



We may be in doubt about having friends, but 
we are pretty sure to have enemies. 



When on concluding a visit to a friend we are 
thanked for having come, the real feeling of thank- 
fulness is often inspired by our leaving. 



CONCERNING TRUTH. 

^'Truth is the cry of all, hut the game of 
a few/^ 

— Berkeley, 
King David has said : ^^Truth will grow out of 
the earth/' but as yet Truth is deeply buried in the 
bowels of the earth. 



Truth in the mouth of a fool is sometimes as 
dangerous as a revolver in the hand of a child. 



Woe unto him who fears Truth's revelations 
concerning himself. 



156 APHORISMS 

The fear of telling the truth is strongest in 
him who is afraid of others telling the truth about 
him. 



The biggest liar wants the truth — from some 
one else. 



THE MIRROR. 



If a looking glass could be made to reflect the 
moral as well as the physical features, how awful 
a sight humanity would present when a mirror is 
held up against it! 



The skilful flatterer arranges his mirrors in 
such a way that his victim gets a telescopic view of 
faults and a microscopic view of his virtues. 



A father punishing his child for inherited moral 
defects is like the fool who gets angry with the mir- 
ror because it reveals to him his own ugliness. 



Sudden success as well as sudden failure is like 
the mirrors used in clothing stores — it brings out 
into view all the sides of a man's character. 



APHORISMS 157 

The mirror teaches us a striking lesson. To show 
our neighbor his shortcomings, but not to make him 
appear grotesque. 



CONCERNING THE HEART. 

To make the world better, we need not so much 
better brains as better hearts. 



If man of great brains would have also great 
hearts they would not have invented such murder- 
ous machines of war to spill human blood all over 
the earth. 



Despite thousands of friends the heart remains 
solitary and lonely. 



The gatherng of dark clouds around the heart 
is usually followed by a rain of tears. 



How^ever much people who love each other may 
be united by caresses and kisses, they are still di- 
vided by the secrets of the hearts which each one 
keeps to himself. 



To every man the heart is his castle, his holy of 
holies, w^here no outsider has any right to enter. 
It is therefore both foolish and ill-mannered to try 



158 APHORISMS 

to get too near to the sacred secrets of the heart 
of our fellow-man. Still more foolishly do we act 
if we disclose our inner heart to others, even to the 
one we love most. 



Could we look into the hearts of our friends, our 
eyes v/ould often be dimmed with sorrow and pain. 



CONOEENING FOOLS. 

If nature destines a man to be a fool, she is 
merciful to him by concealing from him his destiny. 



A fool may be fooled by other people, a wise 
man only hj himself. 



Beware lest he that you look upon as a fool, 
fool you. 



In times past a fool was one who believed all 
things; at the present time a fool is he who denies 
everything. 



Isn't it strange that we recognize our follies 
only after our friends have long forgotten them? 



APHORISMS 159 

If the fooFs share of wisdom, were as large as 
the wise man's share of foolishness, there would be 
few fools left. 



LIGHT AND SHADOW. 

A tree is sometimes valued for its shade, but 
man is valued only for the light he gives. When 
the tree dies its shade dies with it; but when man 
dies his light continues to shine. 



The shadow is not to be attributed to the light. 
It rather comes from the lack of light. 



The light emphasizes and accentuates the 
shadow. 



While the sun is shining the shadows appear. 
But some people can see nothing but the shadows, 
as if the sun were not shining at all. 



Many a man obscures the passage of light and 
cries all the time that the world is dark. 



The earthly shadows pass away, but the heaven- 
ly light shines on forever. 



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